Water shortage threatens Jordan's agriculture

An increase in water usage in Jordan brought on by a rising population and an influx of refugees from surrounding countries is worsening the country's water crisis and damaging local agriculture.

Abu Faisal, a 70-year-old farmer from the Jordan Valley area in Jordan's northwest, owns some 13 hectares of fields. He grows olives, bananas and lemons with irrigation water allocated by the government from the dam nearby.

In the past two years, following a government restriction on water supplies, he has had to reduce his total growing acreage and destroy plants which consume large amounts of water. Now he only grows plants which can survive on limited amounts of water.

"We cut the olive trees down because there is not enough water for irrigation, and as you can see, I used to have banana trees, which also have been cut down because of the limited water resources. There are a lot of things that we were not able to irrigate," said Faisal.

Abu Faisal's farm has been reduced by two thirds, and he has also cut the number of farm workers from 20 to seven. Only seven greenhouses are being used on the farm, and they are only growing potatoes and cucumbers.

"We are waiting for rain, but it rarely rains here. If it rains, then everything will be all right, but otherwise all the plants will be ruined," said Muhammad, one of the farm workers.

According to sources, many farmers have had to rent their land for a lower price because of the water crisis, and many farms remain completely deserted.

According to reports, 92 percent of Jordan's territory is desert. There are only ten dams in the entire country, which totally contain 325 million cubic meters of water. However, the volume of water currently in reserve is barely 70 million cubic meters. It is predicted that the water shortage in country will reach 160 million cubic meters by 2015.