Water pumping disrupted in Kingdom due to major power outage

AMMAN — Water pumping to vast areas in different regions in the Kingdom was temporarily stopped due to a sudden power outage in most parts of the Kingdom on Friday, according to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. 

The National Electric Power Company announced a total electricity blackout in the Kingdom, Friday, due to a technical malfunction on the Egyptian network as a result of Egyptian network repairs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The blackout had a significant impact on the regularity of water hauling in most of the Kingdom’s regions, as the disruption created a delay in most schedules until the ministry was able to restart its water supply and resume pumping, according to a ministry statement. 

Omar Salameh, spokesperson of the Water Ministry, indicated that Jordan’s water industry consumes 15 per cent of the country’s electrical capacity. 

“Electricity is required to operate both main sources and sub-sources, reservoirs and distribution networks in the water sector,” Salameh said. 

“Pumping was disrupted in all regions of the Kingdom, as well as all water stations and wells, during the blackout, which lasted about six hours. Restarting pumping in stations and water projects, such as Disi, takes at least 12 hours to reconfigure the pumps and carry on other procedures,” Salameh told The Jordan Times on Saturday. 

Salameh estimated that restoring water pumping to all regions could take up to a week as some dams and wells need more time and manpower to be resumed.

The ministry expressed hope in that the technical teams will be able to fix the situation in a short time.