It’s rained 3 days this week. Not only
rain, but thunder and lightning. Something I’ve not seen in my time
here. Something I’ve missed. The
tense space between the flash and the deep rumbling in my chest. Bob
Seeger ear worms and counting to five to figure out how far off, I sat and
wondered.
Something I’ve not seen is the rain mixing with
dust storms. From on high, it rains down mud, obscuring views through glass
like cataracts.
Jordan is one of the most water poor countries
on the planet. It’s also home to huge numbers of refugees that that has
increased the population by 87% in the last ten years. They all need to cook,
drink and bathe.
The people here descend from masters of water.
Nabateans collected the rain into trenches and cisterns dug across much of
southern Jordan. Later Roman ruins indicate pools and fountains. Public
baths were a regular fixture.
Modern Jordan will proceed soon with an
ambitious project to pump sea water uphill 230 kms to the north for energy and
desalination. An immense expense of
money and energy.
Keeping up will be a challenge.
Rain averages less than 10 inches per year,falling
only for 6 months of the year. In recent times, it’s getting dryer. This year’s
rainfall is less than last year’s, which was less than the year prior. A
few months back, rain was so stingy that the country came within days of
running out of surface water. Much of
the country is on year-round water rationing.
A freshwater lake, once the size of Rhode Island
and a stopover for the birds migrating from Africa to Europe has been
drained to the size of a small city park.
There is a fossil aquifer hundreds of meters
below. It has been there for eons sealed off by time and sandstone. It is
not being replenished at any appreciable rate, and has been tapped legally and
illegally. It is being drained at an unsustainable rate.
Mrs. S.A.M. remarked to someone about the rain
and was informed that perhaps the cloud seeding was finally working.
“Did they just start?”
“No, they’ve been doing it for 2 years!”
We visitors often look out the window and see
clouds and think ‘Oh no! Rain”, but here, when it rains it is a blessing. In a
land of arid misery, the later in the seasons the rains come, the more the feeling
of a miracle.
It’s raining mud, Hallelujah!
No comments:
Post a Comment