WUNRN
Jordan – Tensions & Grievances between Jordanians & Syrian Refugees over Basic Needs as Water, Food, Costs
Syrian refugees collect water after a heavy snowstorm at Al
Zaatari Refugee Camp in the Jordanian
City of Mafraq, near the border with Syria. January 8, 2015.
Reuters/Muhammad Hamed
Authors: Shreya Mitra & Janani
Vivekananda, International Alert – 15 January 2015
As the Syrian conflict approaches its fifth
year, the number of refugees seeking refuge in Jordan has surpassed 650,000, a
substantive tenth of Jordan’s total population.
This has created strains on the Jordanian
budget, government services, and the country’s limited natural resources
including water. Combined with the harsh climatic impacts of winter such as
rain, slow, hail and floods, broader social tensions are emerging surrounding
the provision and distribution of social-welfare support to the Syrian refugees,
which could threaten Jordan’s status as an anchor of stability in an otherwise
highly unstable region.
Jordan is no stranger to hosting refugee
populations. Jordan’s history of refugees has resulted in about 60 percent of
Jordanians being of Palestinian origin. Jordan has also experienced two waves
of Iraqi refugees: first in the early 1990s, when the Gulf war brought mostly
middle-class Iraqis to the Kingdom, and then in the 2000s, with the Iraq war,
bringing refugees from across the socio-economic spectrum.
The current Syrian refugee situation in Jordan
raises important questions that we should be asking: Is the Jordanian
government and the international humanitarian community equipped to manage
Jordan’s limited natural resources responsibly while responding to such
influxes? Is it able to do so in the face of climate change, which is further
eroding availability and access to natural resources such as water? Is the
humanitarian response appropriate to the context?
NOT ENOUGH WATER
Jordan is one of the world’s most
water-stressed countries. Even before the Syrian refugee crisis, demand for
water surpassed supply. Below average and variable rainfall, population growth,
unsustainable use of groundwater resources, and artificially low water prices
encouraging excessive consumption are further threatening the availability of
these limited resources.
Jordan’s severe water scarcity is also expected
to be worsened by climate change and the associated desertification, reduction
in underground water reserves and rising temperatures in the region.
Against this context, tensions are growing
between Syrian refugees and Jordanians over issues related to water access and
usage.
The Syrian refugee camps, Zaatari and Azraq,
have been built on groundwater reserves. Zaatari, the largest of the camps,
consumes roughly 5,000 cubic metres of water per day, of which 40 percent is
serviced by these groundwater reserves. Unsustainable use of groundwater to
meet the camps’ needs is a major concern for water-starved Jordan.
The international humanitarian community
provides the remainder of the camp’s water needs by financing and paying higher
rates for water than locals, which has the effect of pushing up water prices
for locals and leaving Jordanians feeling further alienated from accessing
basic resources and experiencing unequal access to water.
Similar problems arise with electricity
provision which is covered by the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) for
the camps but is increasingly unaffordable for poor Jordanians.
FAILURE TO MANAGE TENSIONS
Tensions between refugees and host populations
extend to other issues, including food, employment, healthcare, education, and
housing. There are perceptions, whether factually accurate or not, that
refugees are making life more expensive for Jordanians.
The government and humanitarian response
strategy has failed to manage these grievances. A clear example is the
Jordanian government’s zero tolerance policy on humanitarian organisations
providing livelihood training/job opportunities to Syrians refugees.
The Jordanian government pursues such a policy
out of concern that such employment provision or training could result in
Jordanians being displaced from jobs. But the policy has nonetheless
contributed to current employment challenges Jordanians face, as some Syrians,
taking to black market jobs for low wages, are widely believed to have pushed
wages down for Jordanians as well.
Additional financing is an important component
of a more context-driven humanitarian response strategy. Jordanians believe
that the country receives only 30 percent of the real cost of hosting the
refugees.
A vital point of focus should be to ensure that
humanitarian responses address the need of Jordanians as well as Syrian
refugees. The perceived asymmetry is already compounding grievances that can
erupt into skirmishes.
While recognising that Jordan is a middle-income
country, a key priority will be to ensure that the governance systems of the
Jordanian state are capable of responding to the growing needs of its most
marginalised citizens and of dealing with tensions caused or exacerbated by the
growing scarcity of resources.
Against this context, the international
community needs to have a better understanding of the potential threats to
peace that conflict-insensitive and climate-blind humanitarian responses can
pose in Jordan.