Centre for Middle Eastern Studies People’s perceptions from Jabal el-Hussein to Zarqa camps. An analysis of access to water and inequalities in two Palestinian refugee camps of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies Author: Giorgia Gusciglio Advisor: Lina Eklund Examiner: Date: Spring 2018 1 Acknowledgments The accomplishment and realization of this thesis was possible thanks to the support of a variety of people who believed in me, not only during this last step towards finishing my studies, but throughout all my life. First and foremost, my parents and my sister Michela who have been accepting all the crazy choices I made, although with a bit of concern. I am deeply grateful for the sacrifices my parents did and their valuable guidance. I am deeply thankful for my grandparents, two of them left us last year, but the teachings and love they gave me will stay with me forever. To my big family goes all my love. To my best friends, Aurora and Mariavittoria, whose constant love, support and acceptance of who I am, despite time changed us, make me believe in true friendship. To Beatrice, Francesca and Marta, thank you for three beautiful years in Trento and for your friendship, contact and care since then, despite distance and Italian trains connections. This achievement was also possible thanks to those people I met since I started the Master at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University. The same interest and struggles we faced has brought us together, but what we built, I hope, is a long-lasting friendship. A big thank you goes to Elisa, Fè, Markus, Marc, Barbara, James, Nadeen, Rabab, Rebecca, and all the others who shared with me this enriching and challenging path. Endless thanks go to my advisor, Lina Eklund, whose feedbacks, comments, support and patience made it possible for me to accomplish this. Your guidance will stay with me as a great example of a dedicated scholar and professor. To the whole CMES, I am forever grateful for all the opportunities I had within this program and everything I have learnt in Sweden and abroad. I want to thank those people that during my fieldwork in Jordan not only helped me adjusting, understanding and with the research, but also I got to call them friends. To Rebekka, Pernille, Mina, Hector, and Claudia, thank you for the adventures, the fun, the shisha, and for being my expats buddies. An enormous thank you goes to Jehad, who made it possible for me to conduct research in the refugee camps. Your endless help, the valuable knowledge and your amazing friendship really made this project possible and my understanding of Jordan much easier. Furthermore, to all Jehad’s friends who volunteered to distribute the surveys with me in the camps, I am deeply grateful. To the people from SDEQ and I Learn Jo, thank you for having me as an intern and for the growing experience. In particular, I want to thank Hanaa and all her family. Lastly, I want to dedicate this thesis to the people, especially Palestinian refugees, I met in the camps. May you get a better future, outside the everyday hardship of the camps and justice for the land that has been taken from you. Finally, to Richard, whose constant love in the last two years has given me strength, courage and endless support on this challenging path, despite the distance and the difficulties. To many more adventures together. The only thing I can say more is that you are for me what Dante defines as: l’amore che move il sole e l’altre stelle. 2 Abstract With population growth, urbanization and political instability affecting the MENA region, people in Jordan have been facing a number of challenges. From the Israeli-Arab war of 1948 until 2011, with the Syrian crisis, waves of refugees arrived to Jordan fleeing conflicts. Additionally, man-made issues such as mismanagement of resources and a top-down approach in the decision-making have worsened the situation of natural resources such as water. For these reasons, this paper aims to address the issue of access to water from the point of view of Jordanian citizens living in refugee camps established in 1949. To do so, I conduct structured interviews through surveys with open and closed-ended questions in two camps, Jabal el-Hussein camp, inside the capital city, and Zarqa camp, in the outskirts of the homonymous city. In particular, the aim is to investigate how access to water can differ within the two communities, awareness regarding the local water-related issues as well as people’s understanding of other areas’ realities. Through quantitative approach, this project will deepen our understanding of Jordan and its experience regarding the tight connection existing between environmental issues such as water scarcity, the concept of water as human right and social distribution of resources. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 RESEARCH QUESTION AND AIM OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................. 7 1.2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 WATER IN JORDAN ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 1.4 DISPOSITION ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................................... 12 2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 2.2 LIFE IN PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMPS IN JORDAN ........................................................................................... 12 2.3 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON ACCESS TO WATER ...................................................................................................... 14 2.3.1 Health-related issues and uneven distribution in access to water ................................................ 15 2.4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................................. 16 3. METHODS ................................................................................................................................................. 18 3.1 RESEARCH PARADIGM ............................................................................................................................................ 18 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................................................................................. 18 3.1.1 Inductive approach .......................................................................................................................................... 18 3.1.2 Premises of the research design ................................................................................................................. 18 3.1.3 Research strategy ............................................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 SAMPLING SELECTION ............................................................................................................................................ 21 3.3 DATA COLLECTION .................................................................................................................................................. 21 3.4 METHODS OF ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................................... 22 3.4.1 Coding .................................................................................................................................................................. 23 3.4.2 Limitations .......................................................................................................................................................... 23 3.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 25 4. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................... 27 4.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 27 4.2 WATER AS A HUMAN RIGHT ................................................................................................................................. 27 4.2.1 Key aspects of right to water ....................................................................................................................... 28 4.2.2 Category at risk: refugees, displaced people and water-stressed populations ........................ 29 4.2.3 How this human right approach deals with providing safe drinking water .............................. 29 4.3 SOCIAL AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE ....................................................................................................................