Water: Lessons in survival from a bone-dry land
In towns and cities across Jordan, “water day” announces itself with a cacophony of high-pitched screeches filling the air.
Motors groan and strain to pump a trickle of water from ground-level pipes up five stories to aluminum and plastic rooftop storage tanks – tanks that will hold a family’s water for an entire week or more.
Families race to and fro across their apartments to run the pumps, do laundry, wash dishes, and water the garden before their 12-hour period is up. If they miss it, they have to wait until the next week – or perhaps weeks – for the next trickle.
“Water day is more important than an anniversary or birthday in our household,” says Um Uday, a working mother of five in West Amman. “Managing water use has become a
