‘144 drowning cases recorded in Northern Ghor over past 11 years’

NORTHERN GHOR — A total of 144 individuals, mainly children and young people, died over the past 11 years as a result of drowning in the Northern Ghor District’s King Abdullah Canal and other dams and agricultural ponds, Governor Adnan Otoum said Sunday.

Records show that 102 drowning cases occurred in the King Abdullah Canal, with the last incident involving an entire family whose vehicle fell into it, according to Otoum.

Twenty-two people drowned in agricultural ponds, 16 in the Wadi Al Arab Dam, and four in Sharhabil Dam, he added

The Jordan Valley Authority is working on building cement barriers on the sides of the King Abdullah Canal, removing weeds there and repairing its fence, Otoum said, while the agricultural ponds in the district are the responsibility of their owners. 

The governor added that the Wadi Al Arab Dam’s fence has been damaged by people who fish there, and the same applies to the King Abdullah Canal fence, which cost more than JD1 million.

Otoum said it is difficult to monitor the two facilities and prevent violations, especially at night. 

Moreover, he noted that the drowning incidents are not all a result of swimming, as some of them occur because vehicles on the main street in the district fall into the canal.

Some 100,000 picnickers frequent the area on holidays, making it more difficult to monitor the dams and the canal from all sides, Otoum added.

Despite holding awareness campaigns on the dangers of swimming in such places — which are not meant for swimmers to begin with since they contain water used for drinking and irrigation — people still swim there and end up drowning, he said.

He cited a Civil Defence Department diver who said it is easier to save someone from drowning in the sea rather than dams, since they contain so many tangled tree branches.

According to Muath Bin Jabal Mayor Ali Dalki, it is hard to recover the drowned bodies in some accidents, especially in the Wadi Al Arab Dam, with the search sometimes continuing for several days. 

The frequency of these incidents, he said, requires an intensive media campaign to raise public awareness.