Water is Big News Here

In a previous post, we wrote about Jordan being the fourth poorest water nation in the world, and about how that affects our lives, and the lives of everyone who lives here.  If you want to, you can read about it here.  Water is scarce here, and because it is scarce, its importance is felt more than it is at home.  Water is something people talk about, like how Minnesotans talk about the weather in the winter.  When our neighborhood was experiencing major water shortages a few summers ago, it was the main topic of conversation whenever I met someone on our street.  We would talk about how full--or empty--our tanks were, and we would complain together about the hardships brought on by a lack of water.  Just over the past few weeks I've had two separate conversations about a new water system being built to desalinate and pipe in water to Amman all the way from the Red Sea at the southern tip of the country.  Often when it does rain, people will bemoan the wet and cold weather, but they will usually follow-up their unhappiness with a sincere thanks to God for the provision.

The importance of water was highlighted again for me today, when I came across this short article in the Jordan Times about the amount of water currently stored in Jordan's major dams.  Then, after a quick search I realized that water updates were a regular feature of the newspaper, with at least three other short articles appearing over the past six weeks regarding the country's water situation.  This article discusses the improving situation of water levels due to recent heavy rains, this article discusses the impact of the heavy snowfall we posted about two weeks ago and this article includes a great picture of a dam in the desert, which I think I visited and skipped rocks into under the cover of night with some friends a few years back.  The stories all include figures detailing the amount of rainfall in various places around the country, the amount of water stored at various dams, the total water stored at all the dams in Jordan and the percentage of capacity that these amounts represent.  It's an important issue, and people want to know.