AMMAN — Minister of Water and Irrigation
Muhammad Al-Najjar said Sunday that work is underway on a project to finance
citizens who want to build rainwater harvesting wells, according to local media
outlets.
اضافة اعلان
During a meeting of the Lower House Committee on
Agriculture, Water, and the Badia to discuss the water situation this summer,
the minister said the project was ongoing in 2010 and stopped, but it is
currently being worked on, with this year’s financing for the project estimated
at JD120 million.
He added that this year will be “more severe” than
the previous, regarding the Kingdom’s water availability. While rainfall last
winter amounted to about 80 percent of the annual average, “its distribution
was bad”; the south of the Kingdom only saw 36 percent of its average rainfall,
the minister said.
Last year Jordan only had 63 percent of its annual
average rainfall. “It is known that every 10 years comes a good rainy season,”
Najjar added.
He said that the amount of water that was collected
in the country’s dams amounted to 90 million cubic meters at the end of the
winter season, “but the capacity of these dams is three times higher”.
He said that the water stored in dams is 10 million
cubic meters less than last year — a deficit that will have a very significant
impact on the availability of drinking and irrigation water, Najjar warned.
“We depend on
two main dams to supply drinking water, which are the Wahda and Mujib dams,”
according to Najjar. “Mujib Dam was taken out of service last August due to
lack of water, and it is not being used this year because it is dry.” As for
the Wala Dam, the amount of water is also modest, the minister stated.
Regarding attacks on water pipelines, Najjar said
that long-distance lines cannot be protected, calling for more cooperation between
the ministry and citizens and to report attacks for faster maintenance. He
added that four times as many wells were rehabilitated than in 2019 and 2020.
He pointed to “greed” among owners of water tankers
who take advantage of citizens during critical times. “We are currently
discussing increasing pumping from Disi basin from 107 million cubic meters to
112 million cubic meters (annually), and there is the possibility of raising it
to 119 million cubic meters next year,” he said.
Mujib Dam was taken out of service last August due to lack of water, and it is not being used this year because it is dry.
He added that there are no specific ceilings on how
much Jordan can pump from the Disi basin (which is shared with Saudi Arabia),
but added that, “we will discuss soon adding more pumps there, and we may raise
the water supplied from there next year by about 7 to 8 million cubic meters.”
Regarding the National Water Carrier, Najjar said
that all documents related to project have been completed, and “that a
condition has been set for financiers that 50 percent of the energy used in the
project is to be of renewable sources; for the purpose of reducing costs”.
“One of the big victims is industry, because we are
obligated to provide a specific amount of water to the potash industry, which
is one of the most important financial sources for the state Treasury that
depends on water,” he concluded.
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