Jordan News

long live jordan, And For years, an intractable water crisis, especially in major cities and the capital, where water storage tanks scattered on the roofs of houses became a new landmark in the shape of the capital Amman.

Amid the water scarcity, the trade of drinking water tanks has boomed, which has increased in demand, according to Imad Suleiman, who spoke to Reuters..

Suleiman said that he stands for hours at a private well in Amman, extracting water from the well and pouring it into his tanker truck, which he later sells to customers in the sprawling city..

And the number of his customers is increasing among the four million residents of the Jordanian capital, driven by a combination of climate change factors, population growth and the deterioration of the infrastructure, to buy at exorbitant prices, after the tap water became a dear guest who only comes for one day a week..

He adds, “This year, the demand has increased compared to previous years by about seventy to eighty percent.”.

Climate change is exacerbating drought in the Middle East, but the situation in Jordan is worse than that of its neighbors.

“This season was weak by all standards, due to the scant precipitation, as the precipitation did not exceed sixty percent of the general average,” said Omar Salama, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Water..

In contrast, demand has skyrocketed. Jordan’s population has doubled in the past twenty years, with waves of refugees, including more than a million Syrians.

According to official statistics, the per capita share of water per year fell to only 80 cubic meters, down from 3,400 at the beginning of the century.

With desert aquifers depleted and water flows in the Jordan River from its largest tributary, the Yarmouk damaged by diversions in Israel and Syria, farmers in the Jordan Valley are alarmed..

“We cannot grow summer crops,” Jihad Tawalbeh, a farmer who inherited his farm from his father, told Reuters.

It is estimated that more than half of the water pumped is lost due to theft and water leakage from pipes, despite billions of dollars pumped in by major Western donors..

The projects established, ranging from dozens of dams, reservoirs, water treatment plants, and a billion-dollar pipeline to transport fresh water from a large reservoir in the south to the capital, Amman, were only temporary solutions..

A study conducted by the American Stanford University in 2021 painted a pessimistic picture of the future.

The study showed that the per capita water supply in Jordan could be halved by the end of this century.

She added that if there was no movement, only a few families in the arid country would be able to get even just 40 liters of piped water per capita. .

Water expert and former government official Duraid Mahasneh believes that only mega projects for desalination, such as the proposed canal idea from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, can meet the growing future needs of the population.