By: Preeya Ninan

Jordan’s water crisis is made worse by a feud with Israel. (2017, December 02). Retrieved December 11, 2017, from https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21731844-thirsty-kingdom-can-ill-afford-fall-out-its-neighbour-jordans-water

A recent article published in The Economist titled, “Jordan’s water crisis is made worse by a feud with Israel,” frames the current political and economic tensions between the two neighboring regions. The Dead Sea, the salty body of water lying between the two areas, has been shrinking and declining at an especially rapid rate in recent years. A solution that Israel and Jordan came to was to work together to desalinate the water and to pump it back into the Dead Sea each year. Though this wouldn’t entirely solve the problem, it would play an important role in slowing the issue and helping a small amount. This would be especially helpful to Jordan, who is experiencing serious levels of water scarcity according to the standards of the World Bank. This dual project, however, is currently held stagnant – a recent incident between a Jordanian teenager and an Israeli guard, and the Israeli Prime Minister’s nonchalant response to the incident sparked anger and tension between the two areas, causing a political riff and a stop to the project.

This situation is important because of Jordan’s dire need to work on this project, and their need for assistance, as working to desalinate the Dead Sea by itself will do nothing to quench the scarcity of water that Jordan is experiencing. The government is working to find other solutions, such as cutting back in various parts of agriculture to decrease the dependence of water, but these are only temporary solutions. This situation is just another example of how political tensions can have lasting detrimental effects on the economic and environmental status of a country in need.