Police hunting suspects after WAJ officials shot at

AMMAN — Water Authority of Jordan’s (WAJ) employees were fired at and assaulted on Tuesday following the arrest of people digging an illegal well in the northern Ramtha District in Irbid Governorate, according to a government official.

A joint team from WAJ, its central workshops directorate and Ramtha Police Department headed to the Turrah area in Ramtha, responding to a tip that a group of people were digging an illegal well, the official said.

“The joint team arrived at the location, where four Syrians had already dug a 500-metre-deep well. Security forces arrested the Syrian workers and took them along with the drilling rig and equipment to the police station for completing paper work,” the source, who spoke on a condition on anonymity, told The Jordan Times later in the day.

The police interrogated the Syrian workers to identify the rest of the suspects, the source said, noting that those include the owner of the land where the illegal well was dug and the name of the person who hired them.

The source noted that once the legal paperwork was finished, WAJ employees transported the drilling rig via tow truck from the police station, heading to WAJ’s central workshops directorate, where all seized drilling equipment is kept.

“Twenty minutes after the employees left the police station, several pickup trucks started chasing them and firing live shots at them using pump-action guns and automatic weapons,” the source noted.

WAJ vehicles escorting the tow truck fled after they were shot at, while the assailants surrounded the tow truck, and drove it to an unknown destination, where they attacked the driver.

“The WAJ employee sustained severe injuries to his face. In addition, the assailants sprayed an unknown material on his face, which left him unconscious,” the source added.

Security authorities identified some of the assailants, who are now being tracked, the source said.

“The assailants are a group of outlaws who are regularly involved in illegal digging of wells in different parts of the country, particularly in Ramtha and the badia in return for money,” the source noted.

Drilling wells in any part of the country is prohibited and the government no longer tolerates the practice, the source said, stressing that the “serious crackdown” on water violations will continue across the country, especially with the onset of the dry season.

Since the launch of a nationwide campaign to end violations to the water network in August last year, 265 illegal wells have been sealed, over 140 drilling rigs were confiscated and more than 9,913 illegal water pipes were removed, according to the Water Ministry.