Living Water

Jordan’s complex water problem looked at from all sides. From the Bedouin shepherds who depend on it to developers claiming it for megalomaniacal projects. Filmed in a gorgeous atmospheric style, capturing the beauty of the Jordanian desert and the poetry of water – and drought – in all its facets.

Jordan is one of the world’s most water-poor countries. The last stable water source is known as Disi, which lies beneath the desert of Wadi Rum. But while Wadi Rum village suffers from a serious lack of water, developers want to turn nearby city Aqaba into the next Dubai, which of course demands even more of ‘the blue gold’. And irrigated farmlands, once promised as a vital step to providing food security for Jordanians, are now used by mighty agricultural businesses which mainly grow for export.

Czech anthropologist Pavel Borecký spent a year filming all sides of the Jordanian water struggle. From the desert Bedouins to the architects of Jordan’s water politics and the man turning the faucets off and on to ration the villages’ water supplies. A calm and gorgeous look at a very urgent problem.