Shafa Badran to be linked to main sewage network by 2019 — officials

AMMAN — Over 1,300 households in Shafa Badran will be linked to the sewage network by the year 2019, under the first phase of a project to improve wastewater infrastructure in northern Amman, according to officials.

The first phase of the project is worth a little over JD5 million, according to the officials at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, who indicated that 90 per cent of the cost was funded by the German government and the remainder by the state Treasury.

The three-phase project seeks to improve the sewage infrastructure by linking some 17,000 households to the sewage network, Minister of Water and Irrigation Hazem Al-Naser said in a press statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

The project’s first phase will serve more than 25,000 people, Al-Naser said, indicating that its implementation is scheduled to end within 24 months.

“The ministry seeks to expand the level of coverage of the wastewater services from the current 64 per cent to over 70 per cent by the year 2020,” Al-Naser said in the statement.

Meanwhile, the ministry’s spokesperson, Omar Salameh, on Thursday highlighted that the ministry will also shut down the Abu Nseir Wastewater Treatment Plant under its plan to improve public health and environmental conditions in northern Amman.

The plant, which was established in the late 1980s to treat 4,000 cubic metres of wastewater per day, has long been a source of air pollution and a potential hazard to underground water.

Late last week, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation announced plans to close down the plant to address its environmental problems.

The ministry seeks to increase the amount of treated wastewater from the current 115 million cubic metres per year to 250 million cubic metres by the year 2025 under several projects announced in its Amman and Zarqa wastewater strategy released in April this year.

The treated wastewater will increasingly substitute the use of freshwater for industrial purposes, as well as the irrigation of certain cultivations in the Jordan Valley and south of Amman, according to the ministry.