Jordan is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia , it is one of the most stable countries in the Middle East, but it lacks enough water to quench the thirst of its citizens! Water shortage is the worst environmental challenge that Jordan faces nowadays.

 Jordan now ranks as the world?s second water-poorest country, where *water per capita is 88 per cent below the international water poverty line of 1,000 cubic meters annually, while water per capita share in neighboring and regional countries exceeds 1,250 cubic meters annually!

Water resources in Jordan have fluctuated around a stationary low average while the country?s population has continued to rise and this is a big challenge to the country.

  What makes the problems worst  is the fact that Jordan shares most of its surface water resources with neighboring countries, where water must be shared between Israel, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon the control of these countries has partially deprived Jordan of its fair share of water.

*Current use of water already exceeds renewable supply. The deficit is covered by the unsustainable practice of overdrawing highland aquifers, resulting in lowered water tables and declining water quality With Jordan?s population expected to continue to rise, the gap between water supply and demand threatens to widen significantly, By the year 2025, if current trends continue, per capita water supply will fall from the current 200 cubic meters per person to only 91 cubic meters.

As worldwide know the deteriorating regional conditions and turmoil have led to waves of hundreds of thousands of refugees flowing into Jordan, pushing it over time from being one of the world?s 10 water-poorest countries in the world, to the fourth and now the second.

Currently the main challenge to the water sector, according to the report, is the increasing demand for water due to the ongoing influx of Syria refugees into the country.

*There are some 8 million people living in the south of Syria close to the Jordanian border. With the regime of President Bashar Al Assad starving rebel-held areas and depriving them of medical care, how would Jordan cope if another million or two crossed the frontier?

The available water resources in Jordan offer 800-900 million cubic metres of water annually, the minister noted, underscoring that this annual amount caters for the needs of only three million people, while the number of water users in Jordan now exceeds 10 million people.

Responding to the challenge, the government has adopted a multi-faceted approach designed to both reduce demand as well as increase supply.

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*On the home front, Jordan is striving to balance the water deficit by utilizing new sources as well as by decreasing consumption. The Ministry of Water recently unveiled a package of 58 projects, accounting for approximately US$ 5 billion. The projects will be implemented in stages, addressing the most urgent needs first, until the program is completed in 2015. Upon completion, the package should yield an additional 500 MCM per year.