Refugees of the Syrian Civil War in Jordan

There has been an “ongoing drought devastating agricultural prospects in the country’s northern areas for almost ten years,”[16] making Jordan one of the driest countries in the world.[17] The strain on water resources has been exacerbated by the huge “influx” of Syrian refugees to the Zaatari refugee camp, located in the border cities of Ar-Ramtha and Mafraq.[16] As a result of “rapid population growth,” the quantity of drinkable water available on average to the Jordanian population is less than 150 cubic meters per year. The renewable water supply, provided by rainfall, only creates 50 percent “of the total water consumption” so the remainder must be extracted from “aquifers that are slowly being depleted.”[18] Water is one resource without the capacity for foreign support, forcing Jordanians to make do with their own resources. Jordan, as a nation, depends largely on foreign aid and its scarce water resources are not renewable.[19] The extraction of groundwater has sustained the population in recent decades but, with the influx of Syrian refugees, the supply of groundwater is declining.[16] One can purchase expensive water sold by the truckload by local businessmen, but most cannot afford this luxury.[18] Humanitarian aid organizations like Oxfam and Mercy Corps have made efforts to uncover more water in the Za’atari camp by digging wells, but this will only provide temporary, small-scale relief.[16]

The US Agency for International Development in combination with Mercy Corps has created a project that will cost $20 million and will find a way to revive Jordanian water systems.[16] USAID has also funded water conservation efforts in Za’atari village, subsidizing cisterns to store rainwater for individual families. These groundwater harvesting systems are part of an initiative begun in 2006 by Mercy Corps, the Jordan River Foundation, and the Royal Scientific Society, with the assistance of over 135 local Jordanian organizations to help rural families find affordable and clean water. The program is called the Community-Based Initiative for Water Demand Management. The system pipes water down to ground level where a storage container allows each family to collect and save water for themselves.[18] Mercy Corps has taken action in the Za’atari camp drilling two wells to build a pump station, as well as a chlorination system, to supply clean water to a large number of refugees there. Mercy Corps also plans to work with the new Al-Azraq camp in “constructing a new water supply system.” In the Jordanian communities of Mafraq and Ramtha, Mercy Corps is working to repair municipal water systems to fix leaks that will potentially increase water availability up to 25 percent.[20] Aid organizations’ humanitarian efforts have become focused on sustaining the long-term survival and cohesion of Syrian refugees and Jordanians, as explained by Dr. Ibrahim Sayf, Jordan's minister of planning and international cooperation.[21] Due to Jordan's lack of water resources, these humanitarian efforts are designed to alleviate the burden of water scarcity exacerbated by the increased population in the wake of the Syrian revolution.

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a term that includes violence that is sexual, physical, mental, or economic in nature.1 This violence can be inflicted in public or in private and can also include coercion, manipulation, and threats of violence.[22] Examples of GBV are intimate partner violence (IPV), child marriage, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, and honor crimes.[23] GBV typically stems from unequal power dynamics between the perpetrator and the subject of the violence, in this case rooted gender inequity.[24] Research shows that refugee populations are at a higher susceptibility of experiencing GBV, due to risk factors such as armed conflict and proximity to armed actors, displacement, deteriorating socioeconomic and environmental conditions, and a lack of security on settlement premises.[25][26]

Syrian refugee populations are unlike any other refugee population, because 93.7% of refugees reside in urban areas and not refugee camps.[27] It is important to note that stability, opportunity, and access are not necessarily guaranteed in an urban setting. In fact, over 60% of Syrian refugees live in poverty.[28] There is inequitable access and distribution of basic needs and services, as well as unequal access to educational opportunities or employment. As for GBV, it is an interesting and important case study for the intersection of displacement, trauma, and semi-permanent settlement in poor urban zones.

Jordan hosts millions of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, Somalia, and Sudan. The majority of refugees do not live in refugee settlements, rather they live in the host community and are mostly concentrated in Amman.[29][30][31] Women and girls make up more than half of the Syrian refugee population, with evidence shows that young Syrian refugee women experience GBV at the hands of their husbands and family members, Jordanian men, and even aid workers.[32][33] Locations where GBV take place include the home, at work, at school and in public areas.[34]

Inside refugee camps, girls aged 12 to 18 years are typically the targets of domestic and sexual violence.[35] Many stated that they experienced more SGBV since their displacement.[36] Among Syrian refugees, rates of child marriages increased 14% from 2012 to the first quarter of 2014.[37] More than half the female respondents of one study were married before the age of 18.[38] A little more than 12% of girls under 17 facing “some” or “a lot” of physical violence.[39] We must acknowledge that these statistics are lower than the real numbers. One study showed that 30% of respondents refused to respond to or claimed not to have knowledge that physical or emotional violence might take place, while 60% said the same for sexual violence.[40]

One study showed that 83% of refugees reported that they had no knowledge of services available to GBV survivors and almost 15% of respondents believed that girls could not access health services.[41] Only 3.9% of respondents felt that they would go to a health clinic for help as a first choice after experiencing sexual violence, while 12.1% of respondents felt they would treat a health clinic as a first choice after experiencing psychological violence.[42] Resources for GBV survivors include, but are not limited to, Salma (Life is Possible Without Violence), Aisha (Arab Woman Forum), the Arab Women Organization, the Sisterhood is Global Institute, and various other governmental and non-governmental services managed by the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization for Relief and Development (JHCO).