Iran is gasping. Its veins—once flowing across aquifers, rivers, dams, and Lake Urmia—have run nearly dry. Across sprawling provinces, water has become an afterthought as billions flowed instead to foreign battlefields, in support of proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the public suffers—and those who speak out are silenced.

Once the Middle East’s largest saltwater lake, Lake Urmia has collapsed under a triple assault: climate change, mismanagement, and politically driven infrastructure. Since the 1970s, it has shrunk by roughly 90 percent due to damming, agricultural overuse, and drought. Though partial recovery efforts began in 2014, the lake remains perilously low—now with barely 5% of its original water volume. Dust storms carry salt and toxins across farmland, damaging crops and fueling respiratory and birth-defect clusters.

Despite this, in August 2025, civil activists detained in Tehran’s Greater Tehran Penitentiary launched a hunger strike, declaring the drying of Lake Urmia “deliberate” according to Iran Focus.

Protests stretch back over a decade: in 2011, protests in Tabriz and Urmia saw security forces attack peaceful environmental activists chanting, “Lake Urmia is thirsty”—dozens were arrested. In 2022, similar cries fueled demonstrations where protesters shouted “Lake Urmia is dying”—again met with force.

Silencing the Voices of Water

This is not idle climate conversation—it’s a pitched battle over survival. Water scientists and environmentalists who seek solutions are often branded agitators. Human rights organizations flagged arrests of scientists attempting to address water shortages, particularly in Khuzestan, during the widespread water protests of 2018. Since Amnesty International has stopped being a reputable source of information, we rely on locals reporting in Farsi to explain the situation. The NCR Iran provides an invaluable backgrounder on why Iran has become so dry.

Behind Iran’s water crisis lies a well‑entrenched “water mafia”—an entrenched nexus of officials, contractors, and entities like the IRGC’s Khatam al‑Anbiya. Critics accuse them of pushing oversized dams and water‑diversion schemes not for the public good, but for profiteering and patronage. The dams overpump and leave behind mud. Experts describe Iran as suffering “water bankruptcy”—demand far exceeding sustainable supply.

Tehran’s reservoirs have plunged: by early 2025, Tehran’s Lar Dam held just 1 percent of capacity; in Isfahan and Khorasan, dam levels are critically low; across the country, reservoir inflow in 2025 dropped 28 percent year‑on‑year

Groundwater has likewise collapsed—Tehran sinks by up to 25 cm annually, a stark sign that aquifers are being emptied.

Proxy Spending on Terror While the Home Front Perishes

As local water systems crumble, Iran continues to channel resources into foreign conflict. Since the early 1990s Iran has provided Hamas with military, financial, and training support; according to US data, its funding rose from around $100 million annually to an estimated $350 million by 2023.

Iran likewise backs Hezbollah in Lebanon, supporting its military and political functions. Without this funding men in countries like Syria and Lebanon would look for work elsewhere.

Every dollar diverted to these proxies is a dollar not invested in rebuilding aquifers, repairing aged irrigation, or empowering local water researchers. It is a stark choice: fund regional confrontation—or fix plumbing, banks of wells, and restore a dying lake.

The link between drought and unrest is not theoretical. The Syrian civil war was accelerated, in part, by agricultural collapse and water deprivation; in Iraq, tensions over the Euphrates—the container of life in Mesopotamia—fueled simmering social fractures. In Iran itself, unresolved water shortages inflamed protests in Khuzestan and Isfahan in 2021, sometimes with lethal force deployed.

Environmental mismanagement has unified disparate communities—scientists like Kaveh Madani argue that the water crisis symbolizes governmental failure, capable of mobilizing urban and rural dissent alike

Iran’s Researchers Raise the Alarm—But Are They Heard?

A handful of water experts continue to sound the alarm despite constraints. In mid‑2025, Dr Banafsheh Zehraei, a water‑resources professor at the University of Tehran, warned of an “apocalyptic” drinking‑water disaster, saying Iran had only “two to three weeks” to stave off collapse. Another piece, titled Iran’s water crisis and social consequences, argues that decades of regime inaction have created social unrest that will only intensify.

Independent researchers like Madani have documented how misallocation, poor infrastructure, and disregard for groundwater recharge are at the heart of Iran’s water collapse.

As regional conflict enters a new phase, there’s a brief window for Iran to reframe internal priorities. If Tehran were to pivot: arrest the water mafia’s corruption; restructure water policy around recharge, cloud seeding, and equitable distribution; invest in efficient irrigation and desalination; and protect researchers and right‑to‑water activists—it could reemerge with renewed domestic legitimacy.

Lake Urmia, for all its desiccation, is not beyond redemption. Past projects in the 2010s—planting salt-tolerant scrub to curb dust, allocating over $500 million to watershed restoration—show what might be done if political will follows.

Imagine a program of aquifer replenishment in drought-prone zones, a transparent water-rights system, and public involvement. The results: restored agriculture, fewer climate migrants, reduced risk of water-fuelled uprisings, and a calm society.

Iran’s current posture is unsustainable. Starving citizens of water while funding foreign conflict weakens Iran, not strengthens it. But the priorities can flip.

Water is not merely a domestic issue—it is the soil in which national strength grows. Let this moment—the collapse of Lake Urmia, the protests, the crack of civil anger—be Iran’s turning point. Refocus on water, or watch the state itself leak away.

Foreign journalists are jailed in Iran so it is difficult to get a clear picture on how the day to day water shortages affect everyday people.

Further Reading — Green Prophet

• • Iran’s Devastated Lake Urmia Wins Recognition
  • Iran Is Sinking in Sinkholes from Overwatering
  • Flamingos Left When This Lake Dried Up
  • How Israel’s Strikes Avert Iran’s Environmental Threat

• Green Prophet: Search “Iran water”
• Green Prophet: Search “Syria water”
• Green Prophet: Search “Iraq water”
• Green Prophet: Search “Middle East water crisis”
• Green Prophet: Search “Lake Urmia”
• Green Prophet: Search “Land subsidence Iran”

Other References

• Iran’s Water Crisis Will Make It Harder for the Regime to Regain Control
• Iran’s president mocks Netanyahu over pledge of help in water crisis

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Nearly nine years have passed since since Green Prophet joined a media tour sponsored by Eco Peace head Gideon Bromberg to see what has happened to the lower Jordan River. At that time, Bromberg showed us the current situation of a once free-flowing stream that had now become nothing more than a trickle of brackish and diverted sewage water by the time it reached its final destination: the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee, the natural water source for the lower Jordan, is itself in dire circumstances due to years of extreme drought and water usage by Israel, the Palestinians and neighboring countries who all lay claim to the lake’s dwindling water supplies.

Historically, the Sea of Galilee, known as the Kinneret by Israel, and the Jordan River are so much a part of biblical history that they are often mentioned in biblical writings.

This is particularly so in Christianity’s New Testament, where Jesus often referred to the Sea of Galilee as being holy and recruited fishermen from the lake to “throw away thy nets and become fishers of men”. With lake levels near the catastrophic “black line” despite recent winter rains  the former “holy waters” of the lake are still at levels not seen in well over 100 years, according to Yoav Barkay-Arbel, an engineer for Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.

In a recent article in the UK news site, The Guardian, the state of the lake’s water crises  was dramatized by wondering how Jesus would have regarded the lake had it been in such a sad condition at the time he preached on its shores and allegedly walked upon its waters.

The Guardian article pointed out that Christian pilgrims who visit the Baptismal sites on the Jordan, particularly at the traditional biblical baptismal site at Kasir al Yahud (photo below), run the risk of contracting severe health problems due the extreme pollution of the water there. Due to this problem, most baptism rituals now take place at a Jordan River site near the lake’s southern shore, the Yardanit Baptismal Site.

Despite water levels rising more than a meter during the recent rains, the lake’s current water levels are now between the “lower red line”, where the water is still considered as being safe; and the dire “black line” where underground saline springs could make the lake’s water too saline to use.

Israel already gets more than 85% of its fresh drinking water from 5 desalination plants along its Mediterranean sea coast. Although environmentally non-friendly and very expensive to operate, desalination has become so widely used that there are now plans to actually divert some of this desalinated water into the Kinneret to help raise the lake’s fresh water levels as well as diverting a small portion of lake water back into the lower Jordan.

Eco Peace’s Gideon Bromberg has been involved for many years in trying to enable better distribution of the Sea of Galilee’s water to all of the inhabitants of the region. including Jordan and the Palestinians. Bromberg says that letting the lake level reach the dreaded “black line” “would be an ecological disaster.”

Bromberg had previously told us during the river tour 9 years earlier that this situation had already happened to the Lower Jordan River, largely due to most of the Kinneret’s water being diverted by Israel for drinking and agricultural use. The present situation in February, 2019 has definitely not improved and has even deteriorated further. Mekorot’s Barkay-Arbel says that a so-called wet winter only gives a temporary respite to the lake’s critical water shortage and that summer water evaporation will return the lake to former critical water levels.

Israel’s 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included diverting part of the Kinneret’s water to the Kingdom to help alleviate its dire water shortage. Joint desalination projects between Israel and Jordan have been discussed for a number of years; but so far, no joint projects have actually been implemented. Israel continues to be in a state of war with Syria; and as such, no water agreements have been officially been reached between them. This is especially so, since Syria has demanded that its border actually reaches part of the lake; which up to now has been unacceptable to Israel.

More about the water issues of the Sea of Galilee and Lower Jordan River:

Sea of Galilee still critical water levels despite winter rain

Canada and the USA sign on to rehabilitate the Jordan River

Unholy Waters: the Jordan River is Nearly Dead

The post Water crises at the Sea of Galilee. What would Jesus say? appeared first on Green Prophet.

As Earth Day 2013 approaches on April 22, issues of water options in arid countries like Saudi Arabia will be high on the agenda. Countries in the Middle East that face increasing water shortages, especially those situated on the Arabian Peninsula, have to rely more on energy intensive desalination and “importing” water from other locations, including the over-stressed Nile River. The current water crises in Saudi Arabia, for example, has pushed them to build the world’s largest desalination plant  to provide enough drinking water for its population. Desalination has not been the answer for the country’s agriculture efforts, however.

Scientific researchers investigating the effects of climate change in Saudi Arabia predict that by the year 2050 increasing temperatures and lack of adequate annual rainfall will have a serious affect on the country’s agricultural infrastructure.

The post Saudi Agriculture To Be Hit Hard by Climate Change appeared first on Green Prophet.

In the lead up to World Water Day which will take place next Friday, I have gathered some interesting water-based facts on the issue. The Middle East and North Africa region is famously one of the driest regions in the world and things don’t look like they are getting better. So what is there to actually celebrate? Read on for the bad news and also some rather great news…

Firstly, the bad news. According to the latest statistics gathered by IRIN, the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is getting drier at an alarming rate. And whilst trading and importing food brings in ‘virtual water’, it also makes the region extremely vulnerable to trade disruptions caused by dwindling supplies, higher prices or lack of money to pay for the imports. As a report on the issue of climate change and the Arab Spring points out, a winter drought in China contributed to global wheat shortages and skyrocketing bread prices in Egypt, which is the world’s largest wheat importer.

The report also points out that as the region’s population continues to climb, “the water availability per capita is projected to plummet… Rapid urban expansion across the Arab world increasingly risks overburdening existing infrastructure and outpacing local capacities to expand services.” Whats more, the reliance of Gulf countries on oil sold at high prices to buy food and also remain resilience in the face of water scarcity can’t last forever.

As a the report at IRIN states, this trade has simply hidden the gravity of the water scarcity situation and made it easier to neglect the development of more sustainable solutions (that doesn’t include desalination). So is the region headed towards a perfect storm of water scarcity?

That’s not clear yet. For one, water scarcity is not new to the region. The Middle East has been slowly drying for thousands of years and people have always come up with strategies to survive. Adaptation strategies are slowly gaining more importance with Egypt investing more into its water infrastructure – the World Bank has granting Egypt US$6.7 million to improve its management of water resources. And Jordan is taking more measures to harvest rainwater. The water-scarce country is also leading the way in terms of collecting water use data, especially in the agriculture sector which is consuming a huge portion of their water. So it’s not all bad news.

Indeed another piece of good news is that predictions of bloody conflict over water have so far failed to materialise. Despite a growing population and more pressure on water resources than some predicated, people haven’t taken to their guns to secure their share of water. This is something we can all celebrate as it not only demonstrates the region’s maturity but also its willingness to tackle the issue with care and consideration.

For more on water issues in the Middle East see:

Water Scarcity Leads More To Peace Than War (INTERVIEW)

Severe Water Scarcity Could Hit Arab Region by 2015

Food Shortages Could Force World To Go Veggie

: Photo of man watering a plant in the desert via Shutterstock.

The post Why It’s Hard To Celebrate World Water Day In the Middle East appeared first on Green Prophet.

NASA’s imaging technology recently brought some bad news about Mideast air pollution. Now NASA brings more bad news about the Mideast water supply. We already knew that the Dead Sea is shrinking. Some people are even trying to do something about it. But the Dead sea is– dead, its water is too salty for our energy guzzling desalinization plants. So it isn’t practical for human consumption or irrigation. But what if by some miracle the Mideast had access to a body of fresh water the size of the Dead Sea?

Well, it turns out that Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq already have access to such an enormous fresh water supply. What has happened to it? Unfortunately, over the course seven years, an amount of fresh water that would fill the Dead Sea has disappeared from this part of the Mideast. So says a NASA study which tracked Mideast ground water levels via satellite.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueBI9XFNBe8[/youtube]

NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission was launched in 2002. It is essentially a highly accurate weighing scale in the sky which can weigh the amount of water beneath the earth’s surface by measuring tiny variations in the Earth’s gravity.

This study showed that the underground water available in the Tigris-Euphrates river valley shrank by an average of 20 cubic kilometers every year.  The majority of this loss was caused by human activities.

“GRACE data show an alarming rate of decrease in total water storage in the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which currently have the second fastest rate of groundwater storage loss on Earth, after India,” Jay Famiglietti, principal investigator of the study and a hydrologist and professor at UC Irvine, said.

“The rate was especially striking after the 2007 drought. Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws.”

GRACE,” he added, “Is the only way we can estimate groundwater storage changes from space right now.

“That’s enough water to meet the needs of tens of millions to more than a hundred million people in the region each year, depending on regional water use standards and availability,” Famiglietti said.

The post NASA Watches Underground Fresh Water Sea Vanish from the Middle East (VIDEO) appeared first on Green Prophet.

It’s all bad news for Gazans – a UN report reveals that that region is under immense environmental stress which looks set to worsen unless dramatic action is taken

A comprehensive report released by the UN this week has warned that Gaza will no longer be ‘liveable’ by 2020 unless dramatic action is taken to improve its water supply, power, health and schooling. It adds that Gaza’s rapidly rising population of about 1.64 million could also lose its main source of fresh water by 2016. Clean water is limited for most Gazans to an average of 70-90 litres per person per day – the minimum global World Health Organization standard is 100 litres a day. “Damage to the coastal aquifer will be irreversible without immediate remedial action,” says the UN report.

A five year Israeli blockade supported by Egypt has crippled the Gazan enclave although Israel partly eased restrictions in mid-2010 and there have been improvement since. Real GDP is estimated to have risen by 28% percent in the first half of 2011 and unemployment dropped to 28 percent from 37 percent in 2010.

Even so, the report said that growth over the next eight years would be slow and due to its isolation, Gaza’s economy is essentially non-viable. Robert Turner, the director of operation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said that by 2020 Gaza will need 440 new schools, 800 more hospital beds and over a 1,000 additional doctors.

The water situation has been highlighted as a major issue that needs serious action. Palestinians have been digging deeper and deeper to reach groundwater and have in the process damaged their water resources. According to IRIN, an average of 160 million cubic meters (mcm) of water is taken from the aquifer per year, but it is only fed with 50-60 mcm from rainfall and water-runoff from the Hebron Hills every year. This has resulted in a huge gap between water availability and usage. As a consequence, ground water levels have been falling, allowing seawater intrusion. Indeed, a desalination plant costing about $350 million is planned for the area.

: Image of fisherman in Gaza via Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Shutterstock.com

:: IRIN and Jordan Times

For more on Gaza see:

Gaza Getting 20! Zero-Emission Eco Schools

Israeli Environment Minister Proposes Cuts to Gaza Electricity to Bridge Shortfalls

Gaza Seawater Desalination Plant Backed By Europe

The post Gaza Unliveable by 2020 and Its Water Undrinkable by 2016 appeared first on Green Prophet.

According to scientists from Canada and the Netherlands, the world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished

In the Middle East, water shortages are a widely accepted reality which many countries are trying to fight head on. Worldwide, however, the issue is not so pressing with environmental issues such as energy and emissions taking centre stage. Despite this, new research from McGill University in Montreal and Utrecht University in the Netherlands indicates that the world is increasingly dependent on an unsustainable supply of groundwater. They estimate that the world’s ‘water footprint’, which is defined as the area above ground required to sustain groundwater use, is about 3.5 times the actual area of the available aquifers. And this has huge implications not only on water supplies but for food and political security too.

Combining data from around the world, the research team has been able to measure the amount of water available and the water usage. The result which Tom Gleeson from McGill called ‘sobering’ indicate global overexploitation of groundwater in a number of regions across Asia and North America. The study suggests that around 1.7 billion people – mostly in Asia – are living in areas where underground water reserves are under threat. That means that we humans as well as the vast ecosystems that water supports, are blindly walking into crisis.

The areas that the research showed were under most stress include Saudi Arabia, Iran, northern India and parts of northern China. In the US, the areas included western Mexico, the High Plains and California’s Central Valley. The overexploitation of groundwater supplies in countries such as China, the US and India is linked to their global scale production of food.

“The relatively few aquifers that are being heavily exploited are unfortunately critical to agriculture in a number of different countries,” Tom Gleeson told Reuters. “So even though the number is relatively small, these are critical resources that need better management.”

The study found that Saudi Arabia had substantially depleted its own aquifers (as has Iran), which is why the country is buying up land in Africa to help ensure food security. However, it is not all bad news. According to the data gathered, groundwater depletion isn’t a worldwide problem and 80 percent of aquifers around the world aren’t being depleted. For example, some of the largest reserves of groundwater are under North African countries like Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan and these haven’t been over-exploited yet.

The biggest scheme to get to this water was Libya’s $25 billion Great Manmade River project, built by the dictator Muammar Gaddafi to supply cities including Tripoli, Benghazi and Sirte with an estimated 6.5 million cubic meters of water a day. The problem is that once this water is taken out of these aquifers, it is not replenished and so the need to control our consumption of water is still a pressing issue.

Authors of the study suggest that limits on water extraction, more efficient irrigation and the promotion of diets with less meat (or no meat at all) could make water resources more sustainable.

: Reuters and NatGeo

: Photo of Khajoo bridge over Zayandeh river at dusk with lights, Isfahan, Iran via Shutterstock.com

For more on water in the Middle East see:

Severe Water Scarcity could hit Arab Region by 2012

African Land Grab Continues – Middle East is Major Buyer

Middle East Water Woes Beg for Environmental Solutions

The post Saudi Arabia & Iran Are Overexploiting Their Groundwater Supplies appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israel’s national water company, Mekorot (who we’ve interviewed here), is expanding with projects across the globe. It will build and operate two desalination plants in Cyprus to supply almost half of the country’s drinking water. Also on the horizon is a $180 million deal to build a water filtering facility along the La Plata River near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Mekorot Chairman Alex Wiznitzer said he hopes Mekorot’s water projects will be able to create contacts in nearby Arab countries. The United Nation’s has called the Middle East the world’s most water-stressed region. Water security is a vital regional issue.

Wiznitzer told Reuters: “The underdeveloped world doesn’t understand that water is the number one problem in the world. Not oil. Not gas. Not other resources. Water.”

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that by 2050 global water demand will increase by 55 percent. By marketing its expertise and technologies related to wastewater reuse, water security and desalination, Israel has developed a billion-dollar industry.

Mekorot plans to invest $1.5 billion over the next four years to reach its goal of reclaiming 90 percent of Israel’s wastewater. The company says it currently reuses 75 percent, mainly for irrigation, making it the world’s most efficient national water recycling system. Spain claims the distant second place with 12 percent.

Geoffrey D. Dabelko, the director of the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP), a nonpartisan policy forum on environment, population, health, and security issues at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, believes that cooperation over limited water resources could potentially lead to peace in the Middle East. So far cooperative regional projects have been marginal and inconsistent. It looks like only time will tell if waning water resources in the Middle East will lead to increased cooperation or conflict.

::Reuters

Image of Nahalei Menashe water project reservoir in Caesarea, Israel, via RickP, Wikimedia Commons 

The post Israel’s Mekorot Builds Global Connections Through Water appeared first on Green Prophet.

The latest report by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), “The Green Economy in a Changing Arab World”, definitely doesn’t make for happy reading. In fact, it is positively terrifying. According to the report, Arab countries could be facing a severe water crisis as early as 2015, with the region’s estimated annual per capita water share at less than one-tenth of the global average. That would bring it to just 500 cubic metres per capita – anything below 1,000 cubic metres is considered to pose a “significant constraint to economic development, health and well-being”. All these findings point to the fact that we are slowly but surely running out of time.

The dire situation with regards to water has been attributed to political inertia and a misguided short-term outlook on the situation. “Arab states need to shift the focus from large-scale investments in supply-side projects and instead concentrate on demand-side policies that control and regulate water access, promote irrigation and water use efficiency, and prevent water pollution,” the report said. Inefficient use and management of water resources is a huge problem.

According to the report, over 85% of available natural freshwater resources are being used in agriculture but with a shocking low efficiency rate of less than 50% on average. In many Arab countries, the efficiency stands at just 30%. What’s more, the large volume of solid waste created in the region is hugely mismanaged which leads to the contamination of clean water.

As such, change is needed urgently to preserve what water is left and also to improve the situation for those already dealing with water shortages. The report found that more than 45 million people in the Arab world, or 10 % of the population, lack access to clean water and safe sanitation.

The report’s recommendations is quite simply that the Arab region embrace a green economy. It states that not only would this generate economic dividends, it would improve environmental and social conditions. The report adds: “In addition to meeting the demand for change, an Arab green economy will address the shortfalls of past Arab economic performance, from poverty and unemployment to food and water security threats.”

::Jordan Times

For more on water issues in the Middle East see:
Water Scarcity Leads More to Peace Than War (Interview)
FoEME Calms Water War Rhetoric Between Palestine and Israel
Egypt Hold On Tight To Nile Water Rights

Image of water tap from Shutterstock

The post Severe Water Scarcity Could Hit Arab Region by 2015 appeared first on Green Prophet.

Launched by 7iberINC, Once Upon A Water aims to tell the story of Jordan’s vanishing water supply and how they can have a ‘happily ever after’

According to the WHO, Jordan has one of the lowest water resource availability per capita in the world. By the year 2025, if current trends continue, per capita water supply is expected to fall from the current 200 cubic meters per person to only 91 cubic meters, putting Jordan in the category of having an absolute water shortage. The Once Upon A Water In Jordan campaign, launched by the influential 7iber media site, is hoping to raise awareness of this dire water situation and also encourage Jordanians to take positive action now.

The title of the project plays on the Arabic for ‘once upon a time’ to which one letter is added to make it read ‘once a upon a water’. According to the campaigners this projects want to:

channel efforts and conversations around the water issues throughout Jordan into one platform that invites interested multimedia professionals and environmentalists to collaboratively produce digital stories of Jordan’s diminishing water, with the technical support from 7iberINC.

Such stories will seek to amass a wealth of oral history and thus put a human face on an ongoing issue, in the eyes of the average citizens and communities affected by the loss and scarcity of water. 

As well as working with photographers to highlight water scarcity and wall stencils which explore problematic issues such as water theft, they have created a fact-packed infographic. The Arabic infographic shows that the average Jordanian consumes just 80 litres of water a day. That’s a lot less than the average Egyptian or Israeli who consume, respectively, 200 and 242 litres of water a day. It’s also a lot less than the average American who guzzles a whopping 340 litres of water a day. Another little interesting fact is that 28% of all houses in Jordan collect rainwater and also 35% of water is lost through leakages.

“Every year, we lose 70 million cubic metres of water due to water theft”

The campaign has also produced a video report (in Arabic) by Rami Abdelrahman about Jordan’s plans to drag waters from a desert aquifer in Disi along 350 km to the capital Amman.  The campaign doesn’t yet have it’s own website but there are some great photos of outings to the Dead Sea and the Azraq Wetland Reserve on their facebook page.

: Images and information via Once Upon A Water In Jordan/Facebook.

For more information on Jordan’s water situation see:

Permaculture and Sustainability Project Takes Off In Jordan

7 Agricultural Solutions That Will Save The Middle East

Solutions To Jordan’s Energy Crisis Must Be Sustainable

The post Jordan’s Green Fairytale- ‘Once Upon A Water’ Campaign appeared first on Green Prophet.