Jordan experiences a myriad of environmental issues related to water supply and quality, land pollution, air pollution, rapid modernization, and natural hazards. Many of these issues are exacerbated by the rapid increase in population that Jordan has experienced since 1950, driven mainly by large waves of refugees. In the 1950s, Jordan had a population of 560,000 – this increased to 8.1 million by 2015. This has also contributed to a swift urbanization since the 1960s, at which point 49% of the population lived in rural regions. In 2021, the rural population of Jordan had reduced to 8%. The rural-to-urban migration is heavily influenced by issues of food and job stability, issues that have been thoroughly exacerbated by climate change.
Jordan has made attempts to counter climate change through policies such as the 2022–2050 National Climate Change Policy, the 2023–2040 National Water Strategy, or the Jordan Integrated Landscape Management Initiative (JILMI). Environmental activist movements to contribute to climate action efforts include the UNDP's Enhancing Women's Participation in the Solid Waste Management Sector Project, the Food and Agriculture Association Grant Program to enhance agrifood systems, or the work done by EcoPeace Middle East.
Geography and climate
Jordan is situated geographically in West Asia, south of Syria, west of Iraq, northwest of Saudi Arabia, east of Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Its territory covers about 89,544 km2. (34,573 sq. mi.).
Jordan's terrain can be broken up into three tree regions: the Jordan Valley low-pitched groove, mountain heights, and Al-Badia desert plateau. The east and western high lands are largely composed of desert plateau.
Jordan's climate is a diverse fusion between Mediterranean basin and arid desert, characterized by hot and dry summers and dry and mild and humid winters. The dry tropical climate is found in the Jordan Valley, the Mediterranean and warm steppes climates in the mountain highlands, and a dry desert climate in eastern Badia.
Climate change
Jordan contributes a mere 0.06 percent of global GHG emissions. However, the impacts of climate change are severe and likely to adversely affect the society and its economy. Climate change has a broad range of impacts in Jordan: Climate change reduces rainfall in Jordan, intensifies drought, and makes water scarcer in an already water-scarce region, and weather-related events are more likely to cause droughts, floods and landslides. Jordan faces severe droughts that further exacerbate Jordan's water scarcity concerns due to the combination of their desert climate and the global warming effects of climate change. These droughts are periodic: For instance, Jordan faced an intense drought period from 1998 to 2000 that severely harmed their economic, social, and environmental well-being.
Population growth Jordan has experienced a rapid, unsustainable population growth. Starting around the 1960s, the country began to experience rapid modernization, which in turn led to urbanization. Since then, the UN estimates that the population of cities in Jordan have doubled or tripled every 25–30 years. This increase in population, while largely in part is due to the high birthrate the country has experienced, is also largely driven by the Syrian refugee crisis. Jordan has taken in about 600,000 of the 2.5 million Syrian refugees. The country has the second highest ratio of citizens to refugees in the world, and the 5th largest refugee population. In 2015, it was estimated that, including those residing there before 2011, there were 1.4 million Syrians living in Jordan. High rates of refugees entering Jordan due to the Syrian Civil War have added further stress to Jordan's political, economic, and resource issues.
United Nations Development Program study states that, in 33 of 36 surveyed towns, solid waste management was the most affected service – respondents had conflicting views as to the principal cause and who was responsible. Many stated that this was the fault of the municipality and its infrastructure failing to provide adequate solid waste management services. However, a significant portion of respondents also directly blamed Syrian refugees. Solid waste volume increased by 340 tons daily due to the amount of Syrian refugees. This total fiscal cost was found to be around $58.4 million in 2013 and 2014 alone, stated by a report by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
84% of Syrian refugees live in host communities – the rest live in refugee camps. Refugees living in camps lack proper wastewater disposal infrastructure as well, resulting in their wastewater being dumped into bodies of water and contaminating the Jordan Valley water supply.
Syrian refugees find themselves concentrated in Jordan's most water-scarce regions – below both international and national standards for water and sanitation infrastructure. Jordan's attempt to meet the needs of its increased population resulted in the diversion of the Jordan River, due to lack of pipelines and filling points, decreasing its size drastically.
Having so many refugees, many of whom are concentrated in certain cities such as Amman, creates competition in their host communities. The refugee crisis has become highly politicized – public opinion on the Syrian refugees is largely negative. A study held by the International Labor Organization reported that 85% of Jordanian workers stated that Syrians should not be able to enter Jordan freely. 65% said that all Syrians should be occupying refugee camps. 96% said that they believed that Syrians were taking away their jobs.
Due to this negative public opinion, as well as a lack of confidence in foreign aid, has led the Jordanian government to restrict protected space for Syrians. Since 2014, Jordan has attempted to restrict Syrian refugee influx by closing border crossings and increasing the number of Syrians living in camps.
Water Jordan's largest environmental issue has been water quantity and quality. The country has been ranked the second-most water scarce country in the world, due to its per capita renewable water resources. International aid has prioritized most funding to fixing Jordan's water crisis, specifically in response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis.
Water quantity Jordan is an arid region that receives very little precipitation, making it difficult to sustain domestic, agricultural, or industrial water supplies. Due to the effects of climate change, between 1980 and 2015, Jordan experienced decreasing rates of precipitation. On average, Jordan receives less than 100 mm per year of precipitation with some regions, such as the east desert, only receiving 50 mm/ year, with only 3% of Jordanian land receiving an annual precipitation of 300 mm/ year. This lack of rainfall results in low groundwater and surface water levels that limit the amount of water able to be used for domestic, agricultural or industrial purposes.
At the time of Jordan's independence in 1946, there was an estimated 3,600 cubic meters of freshwater per capita – this has decreased significantly due to population change and depletion of water supplies. With only 97 m3 of available water per capita per year, the water supply is significantly below the absolute water scarcity threshold of 500 m3 per capita per year. Before the Syrian Civil War, it was estimated that, by 2025, there would be only 90 m3 of freshwater per capita per year. The country's major surface water resources are the Jordan River and Yarmouk River, which are shared by its neighbors Israel and Syria.
The Jordan River is formed by three spring-fed rivers – the Hasbani River in southern Lebanon, the Dan River in northern Israel, and the Banias River in Syria. These all merge to create the upper Jordan Basin, which flows to Lake Tiberias. The river's main tributary, the Yarmouk, forms the border between Syria and Jordan. Due to the drastic shifts between wet years and dry years, the annual flow can vary from ~200 million cubic meters per year to ~1,000 MCM. There is an average of ~500 MCM.
37% of Jordan's water comes from surface water. This water, which is typically more easily replenishable, has been diminished. Due to reduced water supplies, Jordanian water companies have resorted to over-drawing water from renewable underground water resources. As a symptom of this, the water tables in areas surrounding these aquifers have been significantly lowered, causing further troubles for groundwater supply. Annually, aquifers are being depleted at twice the rate they recharge. This causes issues in the quality of the water drawn from the aquifers, as well as groundwater, and puts the aquifers at risk of pollution or collapsing.
Jordan also loses a large amount of water due to faulty, failing, or unmaintained infrastructure, and theft. International aid company Mercy Corps reports that, due to these problems, Jordan loses 50% of all water resources – at least 76 billion liters annually. This amount of water could provide for more than 1/3 of Jordan's population if managed correctly.
The Disi Water Conveyance Project As an attempt to ameliorate water scarcity in urban areas, Jordan created the Disi Water Conveyance Project. This pipeline aimed to deliver water from the Disi-Mudawarra Aquifer in the south all the way to the capital city Amman in the north, providing water to Zarqa and Aqaba as well. This aquifer is shared with Saudi Arabia. The DWC was contracted to span 325 kilometers as a 1.1-billion-dollar project funded by Jordan, the European Investment Bank, France, and USAID. This was carried out by a Turkish company, Gama Electric. The project provided temporary jobs to individuals in the region, 60% of which were Jordanian. The DWC was put into full use in January 2014. However, the project is only a temporary solution – it has been predicted that Jordan will deplete its share of the aquifer within a few decades. While the project provided jobs to the poorer southern region, it failed to provide water to many other places in the region, notably Ma'an – where the extraction from the aquifer occurred. This was a large point of contention and caused tensions in the region.
Still, water supplies in Jordan currently fail to reach the demand created by its population. In the capital city Amman, daily water needs have risen to 90,000 cubic meters (CM) higher than the maximum available daily water levels. This creates a deficit of 35 million cubic meters (MCM) per year.
Transboundary relations Achieving adequate water demand is made difficult for Jordan by their upstream neighbors, namely Israel and Syria, who overexploit their shared water resources through damming, diversions and pumping. This leaves Jordan with less than 10% of the flow of the upper Jordan and Yarmouk Rivers. In an attempt to improve their situation, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates signed a declaration of intent in November 2021. This agreement would allow Jordan to sell energy from solar fields in exchange for desalinated water from Israel.
Current attempts To improve water security, Jordan enacted the Jordan Water Sector Efficiency Project in 2023 which aims to reduce the use of non-revenue water through modernization of and general improvements of water supply infrastructure. The project also plans to increase energy efficiency, reduce energy cost, and include measures for water security and drought to better understand the negative effects of climate change and work to combat it.
Water quality