The article below is excerpted from the papers cited at the end.
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| The black is the dead sea. The blue is the evaporation ponds for the potash industry in Israel (left) and Jordan (right) |
The Dead Sea is actually a lake and the saltiest and most mineral-rich body of water in the world. It is at least six times saltier than most bodies of water on Earth. is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. When I was young it was quite the tourist destination renown for its healing waters and picturesque beach, but over the decades that has been changing.
The Dead Sea is fed mainly by the Jordan River
from the north. Because of irrigation projects and other water needs upstream,
the level of the Dead Sea has been falling. Over the past 50 years, the level
of the Dead Sea has dropped by 45 meters, and the rate of decline is
increasing. From 1930 to 1973, the sea declined 17 centimeters per year. By the
turn or the century, the sea declined 100 centimeters per year. A 2018 report
by Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection reports that the level is now
falling 1.2 meters a year. As the water withdraws, sinkholes are forming. The
Dead Sea is dying.
The level is falling because much less water now enters the Dead
Sea from the Jordan River. The river once brought 1.3 billion cubic meters of
fresh water every year into the sea. Now it brings only about 100 million cubic
meters, most of it agricultural runoff and sewage. Rainfall only amounts to an
average of about 50 millimeters annually. The Dead Sea has lost most of its water supply.
River flows in the lower Jordan
River, which marks Jordan’s western border with Israel and the West Bank/
Palestine, are estimated to have declined by nearly 90% since predevelopment.
This is mostly due to the diversion of the upper Jordan River into the National
Water Carrier by Israel and the diversion of the tributaries by Syria and
Jordan. The Yarmouk River tributary, currently Jordan’s primary surface-water
source is largely captured upstream by Syria. Throughout Jordan,
groundwater is being rapidly depleted, with observed groundwater-level declines
of 0.9 to 3.5 m/y since 1995 in the country’s most highly productive aquifer- further reducing river flow. To the south, Jordan competes with Saudi Arabia for shared groundwater from the
fossil regional aquifer.
Jordan is considered one of the
countries in the world with the least water resources. Jordan is a relatively
small country with a total area of 92,300 km2, bordered on the north by Syria,
to the east by Iraq, and by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, where it has
its only short coastline onto the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea. On the west it
is bordered by Israel and the West Bank/ Palestine. In 2001 the renewable water
resources were only 150 m3/cap/year. This is clearly unsustainable.
In the 1950s, Jordan’s population
was about half a million people. Now there are more than 10 million in a
country with a sustainable water supply that can sustain a population of about only 2
million according to researchers at the World Bank. Residents make do with 135
cubic meters, or about 36,000 gallons, of water per person per year; the United
Nations defines water scarcity” at 500 cubic meters per year.
Climate change further threaten Jordan’s tenuous situation. The changing environment both contributes to and suffers from the water crisis. Climate change and desertification dry out the area, reducing vegetation and farms. In desperation for water the local population overdraw the groundwater shrinking any reserves that might exist. This holds the potential to exacerbate the regional political and military conflicts, upstream water diversions and poor cross-border cooperation.
Rainfall decline in Jordan has been observed in the past century, and climate models predict further increased temperatures with increasing frequency, duration, and intensity of droughts. Still, population growth has had the biggest impact on water use for people and the agriculture needed to feed the people. Jordan’s population has been punctuated by sudden, large refugee influxes from Syria. In 2010, Jordan’s population was 7.2 million, growing to over 10.8 million by 2020, a period when at least 1.1 million Syrian refugees fled Syria’s 2011 war.
In response to water shortages,
Jordan has tired to increase water supply by water reuse. In Amman, the largest city and
capital, over 95% of wastewater is treated and recycled. However, Jordan’s
water-distribution system is inefficient and intermittent. Approximately 50% of
Jordan’s piped supply is lost as “nonrevenue water” (NRW), due to either pipeline leaks, water theft or other issues. On
average, households in the capital of Amman receive piped water for only 36 hours
per week, with lower-income neighborhoods receiving as low as 24 hours of
municipal supply, while higher-income households receive up to 5 days of
uninterrupted supply per week.
Though Jordan is uniquely challenged, it’s a preview of what the region faces as a whole. Middle Eastern nations top the list of the most water-stressed countries, the World Resources Institute says. Water, beyond being necessary for survival, is also a driver of economies and political conflicts around the world. This makes water scarcity an issue that affects all facets of human life and even exacerbates pre-existing issues within a country.
Approximately 2.1 billion people
around the world face significant challenges due to water shortages, and
the severity and impact of these shortages varies between countries due to
environmental and economic conditions. Jordan may show us what happens next.
Source Material:
J. Yoon, C. Klassert, P. Selby, T. Lachaut, S. Knox, N. Avisse, J. Harou, A. Tilmant, B. Klauer, D. Mustafa, K. Sigel, S. Talozi, E. Gawel, J. Medellín-Azuara, B. Bataineh, H. Zhang, S.M. Gorelick,; A coupled human–natural system analysis of freshwater security under climate and population change, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 118 (14) e2020431118, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2020431118 (2021).
Seawater and Brackish Water Desalination in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia World Bank Document
Industry | EROS from USGS
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