It seems like water is a common theme in my travels lately.  Jordan is actually the third poorest country on earth in terms of water resources.  Jordan is confronting its worst drought in decades and the situation is only expected to worsen with climate change.  Most of the country receives less than 100 mm of rainfall per year (Ithaca gets 2500 mm of precipitation). The rate of water extraction from the Azraq Aquifer in northeastern Jordan, the primary source of water for Amman, is approximately double the sustainable amount per year, and Jordan is expected to "run out" of water within the next 10 years.

The water situation is exacerbated by the burgeoning refugee population.  Basically, the total population is increasing while water resources are rapidly diminishing.  On Fridays in Amman, huge government water trucks fill the tanks seen on every rooftop in the capital.  This is the main source of water for families for the week to come until the trucks return again.

One possible solution is the Red Sea Dead Sea Canal project.  The idea is to pump water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and along the way desalinate some of the water for drinking purposes.  What's left, which would be saltier, would go to he Dead Sea which is currently sinking by a meter per year.  However the project is fraught with major obstacles: huge expense, environmental concerns and a large carbon footprint (it takes a lot of energy to desalinate water).  In addition Jordan needs to negotiate the plan with Israel which also has a boundary on these two seas.  Access to water is becoming an achilles heel for Jordan as it tries to thread a political needle with its warring neighbors.  

​For those of us living in Ithaca it is hard to conceive of a future when water could run out.  But water scarcity impacts every aspect of Jordanian life. 

​Fresh water is a major focus of daily life in the village. Access to clean drinking water is directly related to reduction in poverty.  World-wide over 2 billion people are affected by water scarcity.  In 2010 the United Nations recognized a human right to drinking water.  This is an important step because there is often a conflict between human need versus commercial or agricultural water consumption.

The village I stayed in was fortunate in that they have several pumps, or boreholes, that provide fresh water throughout the year. ​ There were two pumps in my location and they were almost always in use.  In sub-saharan Africa the work of acquiring and transporting water falls largely to women and girls.  

An experience I highly recommend is to try hauling your own water for a couple of days.  To get the full effect you should fill a couple buckets from a hose and then carry them around the block.  Try limiting yourself to those two buckets for everything.  I managed to get my consumption down to 5 gallons per day, which is what the UN considers minimal.  That included drinking, cooking, cleaning, and one bucket bath per day.  5 gallons weighs about 40 pounds which is about as much as you would want to carry in one trip.

By comparison, the average American consumes 80 gallons per day.  That's a big difference.  If you had to carry 80 gallons it would weigh 640 pounds. You would not be hauling that by hand.   If you flush a toilet 3 times in a day, you have already exceeded the 5 gallon limit.  If you take a shower for more than two minutes you have exceeded the 5 gallon limit.  You can start to understand the stark differences in water consumption and why simple transportation of water is such a big deal in an african village. 

It is also important to remember that clean water is a finite resource on our planet, and a resource that is particularly threatened by climate change.  We don't think about it much in Ithaca, but when you live in an area with no precipitation for 9 - 10 months of the year, it is always in your mind.