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Jordan: Water Scarcity: Difference between revisions
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Relative decline of water supplies due to more frequent droughts and the burgeoning population has increased political conflict. It is expected that the population of countries in the Arabian Peninsula, for example, will double over the next 50 years to 600 million. Some of these countries are already extracting over 75% of their total renewable water resources. <ref name="Medina" /> Israel has about 300 m3 of fresh water per person per year and Kuwait a mere 1 m3, while in the Gaza Strip in Palestine it is estimated that 90% of the local water supply is undrinkable as a result of pollution and increased salinity. <ref name="Alqadi" /> This problem is aggravated by the continuing historical tensions between the Arabs and the Israelis. Tensions over water even played a part in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 due to a dispute over the diversion of the River Jordan and the sabotage of water pipelines<ref name="Black"> Black, Emily. "Water and society in Jordan and Israel today: an introductory overview." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 368.1931 (2010): 5111-5116.</ref>; the post-war position of Israeli provided it with control over the headwaters of the Jordan and the aquifers of the West Bank. <ref name="Alqadi" /> But despite such conflicts, water can also serve as a point of agreement; the Israeli-Palestine water commission, for example, is the only joint committee created by the Oslo Agreement that still exists today, while Israel and Jordan have worked together for years on managing the Sea of Galilee located in Israel but near the Yarmuk River, which demarcates the border between the two countries.<ref name="Black" /> | Relative decline of water supplies due to more frequent droughts and the burgeoning population has increased political conflict. It is expected that the population of countries in the Arabian Peninsula, for example, will double over the next 50 years to 600 million. Some of these countries are already extracting over 75% of their total renewable water resources. <ref name="Medina" /> Israel has about 300 m3 of fresh water per person per year and Kuwait a mere 1 m3, while in the Gaza Strip in Palestine it is estimated that 90% of the local water supply is undrinkable as a result of pollution and increased salinity. <ref name="Alqadi" /> This problem is aggravated by the continuing historical tensions between the Arabs and the Israelis. Tensions over water even played a part in the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 due to a dispute over the diversion of the River Jordan and the sabotage of water pipelines<ref name="Black"> Black, Emily. "Water and society in Jordan and Israel today: an introductory overview." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 368.1931 (2010): 5111-5116.</ref>; the post-war position of Israeli provided it with control over the headwaters of the Jordan and the aquifers of the West Bank. <ref name="Alqadi" /> But despite such conflicts, water can also serve as a point of agreement; the Israeli-Palestine water commission, for example, is the only joint committee created by the Oslo Agreement that still exists today, while Israel and Jordan have worked together for years on managing the Sea of Galilee located in Israel but near the Yarmuk River, which demarcates the border between the two countries.<ref name="Black" /> | ||
==Water | ==Water in Jordan== | ||
===Water availability=== | |||
Jordan is classified as a water scarce or water poor nation and is ranked number ten in the world in relation to its water shortage.<ref name="Hadadin"> Hadadin, Nidal, et al. "Water shortage in Jordan—Sustainable solutions." Desalination 250.1 (2010): 197-202.</ref> It has been facing water deficits since the 1960s. In 1996, Jordan had 175 m3/y per person, which was 20% of the world’s water poverty level (anything below 1,000 m3/y classifies a country as water-poor). If current trends continue, by 2025 the water supply per capita will fall to 91 m3<ref name="Mohsen" /> | |||
Overall, about 80% of the country receives annual rainfall of less than 100mm, 12.5% receives between 100 and 200mm, 3.8% between 200 and 300mm, 1.8% between 300 and 500mm, and only 1.3% of Jordan receives more than 500mm per year. <ref name="Hadadin" /> | |||
Total rainfall in 2004/2005 was roughly 9,304million m3 of which between 85%<ref name="Mohsen" /> and 93.9%<ref name="Hadadin" /> evaporates, and only 3.9% of rain filters through to recharge groundwater. | |||
===Climate=== | |||
The amount of rain that falls in Jordan in the north is mainly influenced by orography (the topographic relief of mountains), with rainfall in Galilee and Jerusalem (which are about 800m above sea level) exceeding 600mm per year, while rainfall in the Jordan Valley (in the range of -400 to 0m) is less than 200mm per year<ref name="Black" /> (as a measure of how little water this is, a viable level of rain-fed agriculture is 400mm per year, i.e. it’s impossible to farm below that level).<ref name="Medina" /> By way of contrast, the south is exceedingly dry and rainfall is not influenced by mountain topography. Ma’an, for example, is 1,069m above sea level but receives less than 100mm of rain per year. <ref name="Black" /> This north-south contrast is the result of the differences in trajectories of depressions that bring most of the winter rainfall to the Middle East: in the north they bring moist Mediterranean air and therefore cause it to rain, while in the south the same depressions bring dry desert air from the Sinai and hence almost no rain. <ref name="Black" /> | |||
Climate change will probably bring a reduction in rainfall at the peak of the rainy season by the end of the century. | |||
===Surface water resources=== | |||
Jordan has three large rivers, the Jordan, the Zarqa and the Yarmuk, but all have become highly undependable. The River Jordan is the main water source for both Jordan and Israel, but as it is saline (salty), it is not suitable for drinking or irrigation without undergoing filtration first. It is also small in comparison to other major rivers – the natural discharge of the Jordan river basin of approximately 1,500 million m3 is 65 times less than the Nile’s and 400 times less than the Mississippi’s.<ref name="Black" /> There is also huge variability in discharge year on year from the River Jordan, with reductions of up to 40% in drought periods. It has also been reduced to “nothing more than a creek” <ref name="Hadadin" /> as a result of upstream diversions and over-pumping by Syria and Israel.<ref name="Mohsen" /> The River Zarqa meanwhile receives large amounts of municipal, industrial and agricultural effluent, making it close to unusable for domestic and irrigation purposes during the dry season, while the River Yarmuk, while less stressed, is also a receptacle for municipal wastewater. <ref name="Hadadin" /> | |||
===Groundwater resources=== | |||
==Water resources== | ==Water resources== | ||