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Jordan: Water Scarcity: Difference between revisions
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At the same time we should be careful to remember, however, that it is not only Jordan’s natural birth rate that is producing high population growth, but rather the state’s generosity as a host to the many refugees fleeing the numerous conflicts in the region. According to planning figures published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Jordan will be host to nearly 900,000 refugees by the end of 2013.<ref>UNHCR, 2013 UNHCR country operations profile – Jordan [online] [cit 5.11.2013] available from http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e486566.html</ref> Nearly three million Palestinian refugees made Jordan their home after the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967, half a million Jordanian ex-patriates returned home after the First Gulf War of 1991, and a further half million Iraqis arrived after the Second Gulf War in 2003. <ref name="Kubursi" /> The Jordanian population currently stands at 6.3 million and is predicted to rise to 9.2 million by 2020. | At the same time we should be careful to remember, however, that it is not only Jordan’s natural birth rate that is producing high population growth, but rather the state’s generosity as a host to the many refugees fleeing the numerous conflicts in the region. According to planning figures published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Jordan will be host to nearly 900,000 refugees by the end of 2013.<ref>UNHCR, 2013 UNHCR country operations profile – Jordan [online] [cit 5.11.2013] available from http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e486566.html</ref> Nearly three million Palestinian refugees made Jordan their home after the Arab-Israeli wars of 1948 and 1967, half a million Jordanian ex-patriates returned home after the First Gulf War of 1991, and a further half million Iraqis arrived after the Second Gulf War in 2003. <ref name="Kubursi" /> The Jordanian population currently stands at 6.3 million and is predicted to rise to 9.2 million by 2020. | ||
===Social=== | |||
Water shortages obviously have marked effect on the living conditions of average Jordanians. Jordan has the lowest domestic water consumption in the Arab world, and moreover municipal demand has exceeded available supply since the mid-1980s. During the peak of summer, 85% of Jordanians live at the “hygienic brink”.<ref name="Mohsen" /> | |||
As a developing nation, Jordan has few options to improve its overall water management infrastructure or diversify its economy, leading to a situation that has been compared to the ‘food politics’ of the United States, i.e. using shortages of a vital element in basic human survival to leverage a pro-American stance. <ref name="Mohsen" /> | |||
===Economic=== | |||
Industrial output is also highly reliant on large amounts of fresh water. Generally speaking, three litres of water are required to produce a tin of vegetables, 100 L for 1 kg of paper, 4,500 L to produce one ton of cement, 50,000 L to manufacture a ton of leather, and about 280,000 L to make one ton of steel.<ref name="Mohsen" /> Water is also needed for energy production and cooling systems. | |||
Due to the chronic shortages of water, Jordanian industrial companies often rely on water delivered by tankers at huge cost. Others rely on their own private wells that they have to keep drilling deeper and deeper at great cost as the water table falls, in addition to having to filter extracted water that is high in salt content. As there is a widespread ban on drilling new wells, companies are frequently forced to relocate to localities where there are existing wells, but where the price of land is understandably far higher than normal. | |||
Economic development is therefore being held back in Jordan by the high cost of industrial production requiring large amounts of quality fresh water. It would hence seem more logical from a purely economic point of view to reallocate water resources from agriculture to industry where “productivity per unit of consumed water is 40 times higher…and the employment effect is 13 times higher”. <ref name="Mohsen" /> | |||
==Resources== | ==Resources== | ||