‘Mafraq town to see improved water supply, rehabilitated networks by next year’

AMMAN — Construction work has commenced on a Water Ministry project designed to improve water supply and rehabilitate networks in the northern Governorate of Mafraq by the first quarter of next year, according to a government official.

Under the project, main and tertiary pipes will be extended to link new areas to the water network, while existing worn-out pipes will be replaced in the town of Rahab, 80 kilometres northeast of the capital, a ministry official said.

“The project, which is funded by UKAID, costs JD900,000. The contractor has started construction work on the project, which will be completed within nine months,” the official told The Jordan Times on condition of anonymity.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, Water Minister Hazem Nasser said the project is one of several being implemented in Mafraq, Irbid, Maan and Karak to address the increasing demand for water following the influx of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees into the country.

As the conflict in Syria enters its fifth year, Jordan is hosting 1.4 million Syrians, of whom some 650,000 are refugees and 85 per cent live among host communities, while the remainder live in camps.

The multiplicity of risks due to the Syrian crisis has also impacted the lives and subsistence of nearly 3 million vulnerable Jordanians who host Syrian refugees in their neighbourhoods, according to the 2015-2017 Jordan Response Plan for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

Since the Syrian crisis began in 2011, demand for water has increased by 40 per cent while supply remains scarce, according to the ministry, which said that each Syrian refugee costs the country $600 annually, while the total cost incurred annually by the government for hosting them stands at $360 million.

Nasser noted that under an ongoing project to increase water allocations in the eastern badia, Mafraq and Irbid, among other areas in the northern region, seven new wells will start operation this summer.

The JD850,000 project, funded by the German Development Bank (KfW), will link the new wells to the water network to provide an additional amount of over 600 cubic metres per hour to the northern region before the end of July this year, according to the minister.