Drought by Javier Arcenillas

Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia all have a vulnerability risk to water scarcity of close to 80 percent. In such a complex geopolitical region, water could be a decisive factor provoking conflict in coming years. The threshold defined by the United Nations for water scarcity is 500,000 litres per person, per year. However, in the Middle East and desert countries, water scarcity is starting to become a reality: Jordan is the second country in the world with a shortage of this basic resource, and its annual renewable water resources are currently less than 100 cubic metres (100,000 litres) per person. In urban areas, water supplies are typically replenished once a week, while in rural areas they are replenished less than once every two weeks, with reduced frequency during summer.