I recently spent some time in Jordan. What a place! The rich history, delicious food, friendly people, and diverse landscapes make it a spot to put on your bucket list.

Although on vacation with my family, while there, I wanted to learn more about the country’s water crisis, given that Jordan is among the most water-deprived countries in the world. From all the research I’ve done, water scarcity will become one of humanity’s biggest challenges, and it already is for many countries (including Jordan). But with any great challenge, there will be massive opportunities.

Coincidental Conversation

By happenstance, I spent an evening near Petra sharing a bottle of wine and a plate of kanafeh with a Jordanian engineer who had recently returned from Germany, where he was studying water treatment technologies and infrastructure. His nephews played soccer with my boys, and he and I chatted about the Jordan water emergency. He explained how the country is attempting to combat it and some of the new technologies being worked on across the globe to try and save many countries from what, at the current trajectory, will be an inevitable water crisis. He also explained how the Jordanian government launched an educational campaign for children in the school system to bring awareness to water management practices. Additionally, despite their somewhat delicate relationship, Jordan and Israel have joint ventures/agreements in place for water sustainability initiatives. I made this video the morning after that conversation.

According to Unicef,

“Jordan’s water resources are rapidly depleting and without significant interventions, the situation is likely to deteriorate further. In Jordan, less than 100 cubic meters of renewable water resources are available per person annually, which is already significantly below the 500 cubic meters threshold of ‘absolute water scarcity’.”

With nearly two billion people facing extreme water scarcity across the globe, the problem isn’t going away. It will undoubtedly worsen without entrepreneurial innovation, larger public budgets being dedicated to water sustainability, and cooperation between governments and the private sector. Hence the opportunity…

Water filtration is well understood. But scaleable economic systems that can reliably provide potable water remain challenging in developing nations. The free market has solved many past humanitarian crises—food, plagues, and energy crises — and it can do it again.

Startups, development-stage companies, and massive corporations worldwide are attempting to tackle the water challenges the world is facing. Click here to look into projects and technologies some of these companies are working on.

Stay hungry,

Aaron

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