Berkley Center

The country of Jordan was once part of the Fertile Crescent, a diverse climate region home to some of the first humans and the beginnings of agriculture. Today, however, much the country shows the substantial effects desertification has had on its landscape and its fertility. Because Jordan is landlocked except for a very small strip of land along the Red Sea, it relies on its few water sources, such as the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, and some other rivers, to supply the entire country, as well as neighboring countries in the region, leading to a massive water shortage.

The Dead Sea, for example, is famous as the lowest point on Earth’s dry land and for its salt water so dense that it’s nearly impossible to swim or stay under water. Standing on the Jordanian shore, it is possible to see Israel on the other side of the beautifully blue water, making it a popular destination for both tourists and Jordanians alike. However, partly from pollution in the area but mostly from irrigation, the Dead Sea is quickly disappearing. Much of the water which would naturally flow into the sea from the north has been rerouted to serve other communities, leaving the water in the sea to fall well below its original level.

In fact, today the Dead Sea is approximately half the size it was just 60 years ago in 1950, and it is projected in the year 2040 to be approximately one quarter its size in 1950. When looking across the water, it is possible to see where the edge of the water used to be, and it is startling to think of the consequences of not preserving this body of water on both the livelihood of the community and the tourism industry of the region.

One area where preservation is well underway, though, is in the Jordan River Valley, to the north on the edge of the border between Jordan and Israel. A few years ago, the land near the Friends of the Earth – Middle East (FoEME) campsite was brown and hard. Now, though, after lots of hard work by FoEME and the people who live in and care about the region, the area is filled with green and flowers and bugs and wildlife. An agricultural region, the land in the Jordan River Valley is a top priority, and its citizens have shown that with some effort, the effects of desertification can be reversed. It was also refreshing to see a compost system on the campgrounds and an innovative paper recycling process at the local public girls’ school. The girls took old papers and books and mixed the pages with a little bit of water to create a sort of mold, which they used for art projects and science diagrams, saving money and resources.

FoEME also has a “Good Neighbors” program for youth from Jordan, Palestine, and Israel to all come together on the campgrounds and learn about water preservation and environmental issues. Throughout the program, they learn how to better take care of the land and the water and also more about each other, fostering peaceful relationships between the youth from all three regions.

Despite these strides made in the more rural areas, this attitude of environmental consciousness is severely lacking in the nation’s capital of Amman. Here, the water shortage is also strongly felt, but there are very few initiatives to combat its effects. Each family is given a tank, which is filled up once a week with water. This water will last them the whole week for laundry, showering, cooking, and anything else.

This is a less-than-perfect system for two main reasons. Firstly, albeit according to my extremely Western standards, the tank holds an incredibly small amount of water. With only four people living in this apartment, if all of us are to shower a few times a week, it uses up a vast portion of the water allotted to us.

The second flaw in this system is that the water sits in this tank for up to a week, so that even though Jordanian water is cleaned initially (sometimes cleaned too much, also making it unhealthy to drink), it is not necessarily safe after sitting in the tanks which can be rusting or which may not be cleaned often enough.

While this system is effective in limiting the use of water, a necessary restriction in this region, there are still other measures which could be taken in Amman to ensure better environmental protection and preservation. For example, the only place I have ever seen a recycling bin was in a Starbucks coffee shop, and garbage litters the ground everywhere. This region has a long history, but without making more of an effort to stop the effects of desertification and water shortage, Jordan faces many tough years ahead of it.