Essay Example on Jordan's political economic and infrastructure operational variables

The quality and availability of education and healthcare have declined as overwhelmed facilities struggle to cope with the significant increase in numbers of students and patients The schools have become very overcrowded due to over 140 000 Syrian children being enrolled in the public education system The hospitals are not equipped with adequate space personnel or equipment to handle the high volume of patients Because of this people are forced to wait long lengths of time prior to receiving medical attention The high demand for housing is another factor affecting the instability within the Jordanian infrastructure Since the majority of the Syrian refugees do not live in the established camps their presence within the cities has created a shortage of available housing This shortage has permitted property owners to increase the prices for rent According to the Jordanian government this has increased housing costs by 300 percent Impoverished Jordanian families are being displaced by the ever increasing rental rates of the housing market In certain instances these families have been evicted by their landlords to make room for wealthier citizens and refugees Prior to the mass arrival of the Syrian refugees Jordan was already considered to be very poor in natural resources 

They are heavily dependent on imported energy primarily natural gas which encompasses roughly thirty percent of Jordan s total annual imports Water is another resource that Jordan has a critical shortage of Jordan now ranks as the world s second water poorest country The deductions for this austere shortage are diverse but they include population growth inadequate management inadequate infrastructure and politically motivated overuse The available water resources in Jordan offer 800 900 million cubic meters of water annually This amount of water is only sufficient enough to provide for the needs of three million people Jordan s population now exceeds nine million people The availability of labor is a serious economic problem that has emerged from the refugee crisis As of 2016 fourteen percent of the population is living below the poverty line and fifteen percent of the population is unemployed There are close to 200 000 Syrian laborers in Jordan which encompasses roughly ten percent of Jordan s workforce These Syrian laborers are willing to work for wages below the market that are viewed as unacceptable to Jordanians This has generated both concern and frustration from the Jordanian people due to lack of available economic opportunity