An analysis of the framings of water scarcity in the Jordanian national water strategy

ABSTRACT

This viewpoint analyzes the Jordanian water strategy to investigate how water scarcity is framed, and what solutions are suggested. It also analyzes how the framings and discourses have changed in the two versions of the strategy, why, and their implications. The Jordanian national water strategy has been overlooked by the literature of hydropolitics.  The analysis here also contributes by showing the interplay between discourses of scarcity and policy solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Water for Life
• Jordan
• water policy
• water scarcity
• national water strategy
• SDG

Acknowledgments

This publication was made possible in part through the support of the Arab Council of the Social Sciences with funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York for the postdoctoral fellowship programme (Cycle 4). The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author. The author is also grateful to the Council for British Research in the Levant for the pilot study award and travel grant received.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For further literature on water politics and discourses in Jordan, see Yorke (2013, 2016), Greenwood (2014), and Keulertz (2013) on the water politics in Jordan, and Hussein (2016, 2018) on the construction of the discourse of water scarcity in Jordan.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York [Research Grant];Council for British Research in the Levant [Research Grant]; and Arab Council for Social Sciences [Research Grant].