Jordan water crisis worsens as Mideast tensions slow action
SHARHABIL - Jordanians don't need scientists to tell them they live in one of the world's driest countries in the planet's most water-poor region. Their reservoirs are only one-fifth full, a record low, and vital winter rains are becoming more erratic.
But recent studies suggest the kingdom, a Western ally and a host nation for Syrian war refugees, is being hit particularly hard by climate change, getting hotter and drier than previously anticipated. One forecast predicts as much as 30 percent less rain by 2100.
Ali Subah of the Water Ministry warns that Jordanians "are really in trouble if we don't take action."
But addressing the problem would require cross-border cooperation, a commodity as scarce as water in the Jordan River basin shared by Jordan, Israel, the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.
