In a country that is continually ranked among the poorest in terms of water globally, the water issue in Jordan has transformed from merely a service issue into a cornerstone of national security.
Two significant water events witnessed by the water sector this week, which dominated the local scene: the launch of the national carrier project for desalinating the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba and the political-water movement with Syria, reveal that the state is redefining its water strategy on new grounds that transcend traditional solutions.
The national desalination project, with a capacity up to 300 million cubic meters annually, cannot be read merely as an investment in infrastructure, but is a political decision par excellence.
Since our country, which relied on limited sources such as the Disi Aquifer, realizes that the continuous depletion of groundwater is no longer a viable option.
From here, the project appears as a shift towards "water manufacturing," i.e., producing it through technology instead of waiting for it from nature. This transition reflects a deep understanding that climate change and variations in rainfall have made relying on traditional sources a strategic risk.
However, this path, despite offering promising solutions to alleviate the water crisis, remains linked to broader aspects beyond just the technical side, such as building effective operating and maintenance systems, ensuring wise management of consumption, and the need to continue campaigns to protect water sources from assaults and thefts.
Groundwater must not be overlooked as an essential complementary source, as over-pumping leads to a decline in its level and deterioration of its quality. Therefore, dealing with the water crisis is not limited to finding new sources but extends to achieving a delicate balance between relying on desalinated water and protecting the groundwater reserve, ensuring the sustainability of water resources for future generations.
On the other hand, the regional dimension remains strongly present, as the movement with Syria reflects an attempt to reactivate cooperation in managing shared resources, especially considering the long history of challenges associated with transboundary waters, without ignoring that this path remains subject to the complexities of regional politics, where water cannot be separated from the broader context of tensions and transformations in the region.
What forms today is a dual model: increasing self-reliance through major projects, accompanied by the ongoing need for diplomacy to ensure the stability of shared resources.
This model reflects political pragmatism, but at the same time reveals an inherent fragility, as any imbalance in one of the paths - economically or politically - could bring the crisis back to the forefront.
Ultimately, it does not seem that Jordan is heading towards "water abundance," but towards precise management of chronic scarcity, and here lies the real challenge: not only in providing water but in building a political and economic system capable of handling this resource as a long-term strategic element.
And water in Jordan has become not just a natural resource but a criterion for the effectiveness of the state and its ability to adapt to an increasingly arid and complex world.
