The Hashemite Kingdom officially entered a severe water crisis this week, with the Water Ministry announcing that the dams have reached the lower red line after a dry rainy season and accelerated pumping of groundwater.
According to reports, the average available water per person in Jordan is about 60 cubic meters per year, compared to about 500 cubic meters per person globally on average. On social media, the criticism focuses on “government negligence,” with criticism of Israel also not absent.
In an effort to cope with the severe crisis, the authorities in Amman are implementing an emergency plan that includes several measures, among them fighting water theft from pipelines and illegal wells, striving to advance a huge project to establish a desalination plant for the Gulf of Aqaba and pumping the water to the center of the kingdom, as well as tightening water policy coordination with Syria and redefining the division of the Jordan sources.
None of these solutions will provide immediate relief to the crisis.