USAID/Jordan Water Management Initiative: Review of Water Scarcity Ranking Methodologies

This document, produced as part of the Jordan Water Management Initiative (WMI) seeks to provide insight into how water scarcity can and should be quantified, with the aim of ranking Jordan’s scarcity on a global scale. Although a vast number of indicators for measuring water scarcity exist, few have been compiled or updated for international comparison. The most commonly used indicator internationally measures renewable water resource supply per capita. In 2014, Jordan was 7th most-scarce globally by this measure. When considering the gross domestic product as a proxy for countries wealth and a factor for comparison, Jordan occupies the second place in scarcity in the Middle East after Yemen and the third in the global scale with Maldives as the most water-poor country in the world. This brief seeks to understand the many ways in which water scarcity is measured, with the ultimate goal of guiding USAID-WMI in communicating Jordan’s water crisis to external actors.