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Dumped sewage forces Bani Kinanah residents to abandon homes
Amal Ghawanmeh, ARIJ
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AMMAN — Umm Hussam Abandah lived in the village of Samar in Bani Kinanah district,
northwest of Irbid, for 20 years. Recently, she was forced to leave her home
because she could no longer stand the unpleasant odour, insects, and rodents
caused by a constant overflow of wastewater dumped illegally in the valley near
her house. اضافة اعلان
Sewage networks are still unavailable in the area, and its 153,000 residents depend on septic tanks to dispense of their domestic wastewater.
In the absence of a sewage system, residents pay up to JD60 to empty their septic tanks. The tankers later dispose their loads off at Al-Akaider landfill in Ramtha, designated to serve the four northern governorates.
Several waste disposal tankers fail to adhere to procedures, and circumvent the approved electronic system that tracks each tanker in the Kingdom. They dump the wastewater in the valleys instead of making the journey to the landfill site, although they usually get paid for the service. The outcome led Umm Hussam to vacate.
A septic tank must empty its load once every month or two, depending on its capacity, as all homes in Bani Kinanah district have cesspools in their homes due to the lack of a sanitation network.
Umm Suhaib from the village of the nearby Abu Al-Luqas shares the same problem, since tanker drivers turned the valley that is around 100–120m from her neighborhood into a wastewater dumping site.
Umm Suhaib claimed that the drivers’ actions has even polluted the spring water in the area.
Her neighbors filed a complaint against the owner of the tanker, who has been apprehended, but not deterred, she recalled. She said he continued to empty his truckload in olive trees orchards in the valley.
Geologist and environmentalist Ahmad Al-Shraydah explained that dumping wastewater in agricultural land and valleys kills the soil because of the toxic substances it carries, including minerals and metals.
He pointed out that the “infiltration of these elements through the earth’s layers raises the earth’s temperature and the soil’s alkalinity and acidity, thus leading to its desertification.”
Al-Shraydah also warned that this helps spread unpleasant odours, insects, pests, germs, viruses and, bacteria.
But why is it that tanker owners resist to offload their trucks at Al-Akaider dumping site?
One of them replied: “To be honest, tanker owners sneak a load here and there in the valleys because that is cost-efficient for them. I swear JD50 is an insufficient fee to fulfil this task.”
The distance from the village of Samar Al-Kfarat to Al-Akaider landfill is 44.7km, and it is a 60-minute round trip. The diesel costs about JD25, and there is a monthly JD20 fee for unloading the waste in the dumping site.
Sewage dumped by a disposal tanker litter the ground in a northern residential area.
Muntasir Al-Momani, the general manager of the Yarmouk Water Company, said that a second unloading site exist in the village of North Shouneh as an alternative. He said that site is closer to Bani Kinanah.
Bani Kinanah district Assistant Governor Omar Al-Qudah, who received many complaints on the matter, said: “We followed up on the complaints and referred them to court”.
“We punish the offenders with bails and fines, but they repeat their offenses,” he said.
Qudah said most of the offending tankers are “unlicensed vehicles, and do not have number plates on them”.
What complicate matters more is that the tankers empty their load in agricultural or open areas close to residential neighborhoods at night.
In 2017, the Ministry of the Environment launched an electronic tracking system to monitor the 700 wastewater plants, disposed oil, and hazardous material transport vehicles to oversee their locations and the dumping sites they visit. Installing the system is a requisite to registering the vehicle, or renewing its license.
Qudah said that some tanker owners managed to circumvent the system. “They removed the tracking device from their vehicles and installed it in other vehicles, so that the signal shows that they have been parked.”
Although the action was undertaken by a small number of drivers, the impact on the environment is immense, he explained.
He recalled an incident in April, when a clean water network was contaminated with wastewater in Al-Mukhaibah area in Al-Himmah Al-Ordonyah area. Citizens there are still deprived of clean water, and they have been relying on water supplied by tankers until maintenance on the network is completed.
Qudah said that a comprehensive study of all areas recommended that the need for more than one water purification plant due to the chain of mountains and valleys there. But the high cost of the project led to its deferment until support from donor countries could be secured.
Irbid Decentralization Council member Eman Al-Zoubi said five German firms were close to fund the construction of an unloading and purification plant in the Bani Kinanah District in 2018. But the COVID-19 pandemic put the project on the back burner. The amounts allocated for the plant construction were re-directed to the Global Health Project.
Zoubi said she saw positive signs that the plant project may be revived as Jordan hosted German donors to discuss ways to support the project.
Ministry of Planning Secretary-General Marwan Al-Rifai said that the government entity that sets priorities in the water and sanitation sector in Jordan is the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, but that depends on available funding.
Fawzi Al-Akour, a director of the Environmental Protection Directorate in Irbid Governorate, denied that tanker owners are committing violations recently, thanks to the electronic tracking system that ensures that a tanker’s load is dumped at the designated station.
“Should we detect a violation, the tanker number and its owner will be reported to the administrative governor who would take legal and administrative action against the offending party,” he said.
However, Akour admitted that “in the evening hours sometimes, tanker owners override regulations and dump the wastewater in the valleys and plains, and we usually report the matter to the Royal Department for the Environment and Tourism Protection, asking them to increase their night monitoring of the most common spots.”
“In turn, this entity reports the violators to the administrative governor,” he pointed out.
In response to accusations that the tracking system has not been taken seriously, Akour insisted that it “tracks the movement of licensed tankers routinely and monitors their locations even without receiving complaints on them by entering the tanker number on the system to see their movements”.
“This resulted in raising awareness among tanker owners, who cooperate with the concerned authorities to rectify the defect in the tracking system, if that should happen,” he added.
Article 5 of the Water Authority Law No. 18 of 1988 and its amendments state that “the ministry assumes full responsibility for water, sanitation and related projects in Jordan. It sets the water policy and submits it to the Council of Ministers for approval.”
The head of the Arab Federation for Sustainable Development and the Environment Yousif Obeidat said he believed that the citizens of Bani Kinanah “have stopped complaining” because it is pointless. He noted that successive governments hardly know where Bani Kinanah is located, in the first place.
He urged the residents to take their complaints to the Royal Court, given that no governmental or private entity has shown any genuine interest to resolve this matter.
Head of the governorate council Khaldoun Bani Hani said that so far, the Decentralization Council members have not dealt with the issue of Bani Kinanah district.
The council’s financial allocations amount to 15 percent of the state budget, and this is barely enough to provide a sewage network for a village. It is estimated that the real cost of the entire project is JD100 million.
The violating tanker owners are known to the authorities, and most are based in nearby districts, Bani Hani said. He said that work is underway to track them down, and take legal action against them.
He highlighted the will of the council to establish a committee to address all problems, and to develop necessary solutions.
Meanwhile, Bani Kinanah citizens await a solution, which is maybe unlikely in the foreseeable future.
Until such time, Irbid’s most important agricultural district will continue to deteriorate rendering it uninhabitable, or unsuitable for agriculture, or even worse: a health hazard.
This story was published in collaboration with ARIJ.
Read more Features
Jordan News
Sewage networks are still unavailable in the area, and its 153,000 residents depend on septic tanks to dispense of their domestic wastewater.
In the absence of a sewage system, residents pay up to JD60 to empty their septic tanks. The tankers later dispose their loads off at Al-Akaider landfill in Ramtha, designated to serve the four northern governorates.
Several waste disposal tankers fail to adhere to procedures, and circumvent the approved electronic system that tracks each tanker in the Kingdom. They dump the wastewater in the valleys instead of making the journey to the landfill site, although they usually get paid for the service. The outcome led Umm Hussam to vacate.
A septic tank must empty its load once every month or two, depending on its capacity, as all homes in Bani Kinanah district have cesspools in their homes due to the lack of a sanitation network.
Umm Suhaib from the village of the nearby Abu Al-Luqas shares the same problem, since tanker drivers turned the valley that is around 100–120m from her neighborhood into a wastewater dumping site.
Umm Suhaib claimed that the drivers’ actions has even polluted the spring water in the area.
Her neighbors filed a complaint against the owner of the tanker, who has been apprehended, but not deterred, she recalled. She said he continued to empty his truckload in olive trees orchards in the valley.
Geologist and environmentalist Ahmad Al-Shraydah explained that dumping wastewater in agricultural land and valleys kills the soil because of the toxic substances it carries, including minerals and metals.
He pointed out that the “infiltration of these elements through the earth’s layers raises the earth’s temperature and the soil’s alkalinity and acidity, thus leading to its desertification.”
Al-Shraydah also warned that this helps spread unpleasant odours, insects, pests, germs, viruses and, bacteria.
But why is it that tanker owners resist to offload their trucks at Al-Akaider dumping site?
One of them replied: “To be honest, tanker owners sneak a load here and there in the valleys because that is cost-efficient for them. I swear JD50 is an insufficient fee to fulfil this task.”
The distance from the village of Samar Al-Kfarat to Al-Akaider landfill is 44.7km, and it is a 60-minute round trip. The diesel costs about JD25, and there is a monthly JD20 fee for unloading the waste in the dumping site.
Sewage dumped by a disposal tanker litter the ground in a northern residential area.
Muntasir Al-Momani, the general manager of the Yarmouk Water Company, said that a second unloading site exist in the village of North Shouneh as an alternative. He said that site is closer to Bani Kinanah.
Bani Kinanah district Assistant Governor Omar Al-Qudah, who received many complaints on the matter, said: “We followed up on the complaints and referred them to court”.
“We punish the offenders with bails and fines, but they repeat their offenses,” he said.
Qudah said most of the offending tankers are “unlicensed vehicles, and do not have number plates on them”.
What complicate matters more is that the tankers empty their load in agricultural or open areas close to residential neighborhoods at night.
In 2017, the Ministry of the Environment launched an electronic tracking system to monitor the 700 wastewater plants, disposed oil, and hazardous material transport vehicles to oversee their locations and the dumping sites they visit. Installing the system is a requisite to registering the vehicle, or renewing its license.
Qudah said that some tanker owners managed to circumvent the system. “They removed the tracking device from their vehicles and installed it in other vehicles, so that the signal shows that they have been parked.”
Although the action was undertaken by a small number of drivers, the impact on the environment is immense, he explained.
He recalled an incident in April, when a clean water network was contaminated with wastewater in Al-Mukhaibah area in Al-Himmah Al-Ordonyah area. Citizens there are still deprived of clean water, and they have been relying on water supplied by tankers until maintenance on the network is completed.
Qudah said that a comprehensive study of all areas recommended that the need for more than one water purification plant due to the chain of mountains and valleys there. But the high cost of the project led to its deferment until support from donor countries could be secured.
Irbid Decentralization Council member Eman Al-Zoubi said five German firms were close to fund the construction of an unloading and purification plant in the Bani Kinanah District in 2018. But the COVID-19 pandemic put the project on the back burner. The amounts allocated for the plant construction were re-directed to the Global Health Project.
Zoubi said she saw positive signs that the plant project may be revived as Jordan hosted German donors to discuss ways to support the project.
Ministry of Planning Secretary-General Marwan Al-Rifai said that the government entity that sets priorities in the water and sanitation sector in Jordan is the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, but that depends on available funding.
Fawzi Al-Akour, a director of the Environmental Protection Directorate in Irbid Governorate, denied that tanker owners are committing violations recently, thanks to the electronic tracking system that ensures that a tanker’s load is dumped at the designated station.
“Should we detect a violation, the tanker number and its owner will be reported to the administrative governor who would take legal and administrative action against the offending party,” he said.
However, Akour admitted that “in the evening hours sometimes, tanker owners override regulations and dump the wastewater in the valleys and plains, and we usually report the matter to the Royal Department for the Environment and Tourism Protection, asking them to increase their night monitoring of the most common spots.”
“In turn, this entity reports the violators to the administrative governor,” he pointed out.
In response to accusations that the tracking system has not been taken seriously, Akour insisted that it “tracks the movement of licensed tankers routinely and monitors their locations even without receiving complaints on them by entering the tanker number on the system to see their movements”.
“This resulted in raising awareness among tanker owners, who cooperate with the concerned authorities to rectify the defect in the tracking system, if that should happen,” he added.
Article 5 of the Water Authority Law No. 18 of 1988 and its amendments state that “the ministry assumes full responsibility for water, sanitation and related projects in Jordan. It sets the water policy and submits it to the Council of Ministers for approval.”
The head of the Arab Federation for Sustainable Development and the Environment Yousif Obeidat said he believed that the citizens of Bani Kinanah “have stopped complaining” because it is pointless. He noted that successive governments hardly know where Bani Kinanah is located, in the first place.
He urged the residents to take their complaints to the Royal Court, given that no governmental or private entity has shown any genuine interest to resolve this matter.
Head of the governorate council Khaldoun Bani Hani said that so far, the Decentralization Council members have not dealt with the issue of Bani Kinanah district.
The council’s financial allocations amount to 15 percent of the state budget, and this is barely enough to provide a sewage network for a village. It is estimated that the real cost of the entire project is JD100 million.
The violating tanker owners are known to the authorities, and most are based in nearby districts, Bani Hani said. He said that work is underway to track them down, and take legal action against them.
He highlighted the will of the council to establish a committee to address all problems, and to develop necessary solutions.
Meanwhile, Bani Kinanah citizens await a solution, which is maybe unlikely in the foreseeable future.
Until such time, Irbid’s most important agricultural district will continue to deteriorate rendering it uninhabitable, or unsuitable for agriculture, or even worse: a health hazard.
This story was published in collaboration with ARIJ.
Read more Features
Jordan News
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