Jordan: Water and Environmental Policy in the Middle East

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The Jordan: Water and Environmental Policy in the Middle East program examines existing challenges and emerging opportunities to sustainably manage the region's limited natural resources, particularly water. 

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The scarcity of water in the Middle East has long been a significant driver of regional conflict and continues to pose challenges to the region's growth, security, and long-term sustainability.  By working with academic and community experts in a field-study context, students explore sustainable development alternatives to managing the area's natural resources in a responsible, effective, and just manner. The program encourages students to take a local and regional approach in considering a very serious environmental challenge with transnational dimensions.

Topics for inquiry include:

• Appropriate technologies and mechanisms for managing water in Jordan and also, conditions permitting, in Israel
• Sustainable agriculture in arid lands and the impact of government and non-governmental resource management initiatives on rural communities
• Challenges and strategies pertaining to tourism development: impact of mass tourism vs. eco-tourism

Field-based inquiry, through site visits and other educational excursions, is an essential component of this program.  Visits to dams, water treatment plants, ecotourism reserves, and sustainable agriculture sites allow students to better understand and evaluate natural resource management strategies through firsthand experience.  Field highlights include inspecting the Water Reuse project at the Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) and visiting sustainable development projects in the Northern Badia.  Conditions permitting, students also have the opportunity to engage with experts at the Arava Institute, an exceptional environmental education and research center in southern Israel.

Throughout the program, students are immersed in Jordanian society and culture. Homestays in both urban and rural areas give students the opportunity to experience the daily life and perspectives of two very different Jordanian communities.  Two-week intensive Jordan Colloquial Arabic language study further facilities cross-cultural communication and understanding.