AMMAN (JT) - Water authorities announced yesterday plans to address water shortage, including the building of a water desalination plant in Aqaba.
During a meeting with Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Shatnawi in Aqaba, Director of Aqaba Water Company Emad Zreikat said the $30 million plant would be set up on the southern shores of Aqaba with a capacity of five million cubic metres (mcm) annually.
The project would cover more than a quarter of water needs of the growing Aqaba, which currently consumes 18mcm a year.
Zreikat said terms of reference are being set by a specialised international firm.
Meanwhile, water authorities have reported decreasing pressures on the water supplies system, attributing the improvement to new projects and maintenance works to pipe networks that have reduced water loss.
Sources at the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna) said Saturday that the shortage in water supplies witnessed in the summer has been minimised, thanks to the resumption of constant pumping from the Zara Main Plant at a 100,000mcm daily rate. The improvement was also attributed to 42 new water wells, with a total capacity of 20mcm and the reduction of water loss by 2 per cent, which has saved the country 5.5mcm a year, according to Miyahuna sources.
Shatnawi said in Aqaba, where he met with top officials from Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority, that his ministry has plans to reduce water loss in the Kingdom from the current 43 per cent to 25 per cent over the coming few years.
According to official figures, Mafraq Governorate registered the highest percentage of water loss totalling 57 per cent, while Aqaba recorded the lowest amount of water loss of 23 per cent, according to the minister.
Meanwhile, Amman residents have consumed less water during the holy month of Ramadan compared to the other months of the year, according to the ministry. No exact figures were released, but figures show that in the period from mid-September to October 3, Amman consumed 8.5mcm.
Some 27 per cent of water supplied to Amman are from sources in the capital, while 73 per cent of the city's needs for water are conveyed from sources in other districts, including the Zai Water Treatment Plant, Zara Main Plant, Lajloun and Waleh dams, and Azraq and Aqaba aquifers.
According to the ministry, the reduction in water consumption in Amman is due to the fact that the peak hour of water consumption starts later in a fasting day (around 3:00pm), which coincides with the start of pumping water to the capital's areas in accordance with a weekly water distribution schedule.
Consuming less water in the capital helped increase water pumping hours to residents of the capital which, they said, continued for days in some areas in Amman.
Miyahuna officials added that consumer complaints of short pumping periods and related problems by more than 400,000 subscribers dropped tremendously. They did not give exact figures of this decrease in the number of complaints.
The total amount of potable water pumped to households in the Kingdom this summer amounted to 170mcm, compared to 156mcm of 2006.
The high number of Jordanian expatriates who return home for summer vacation added to the burden on water authorities to pump enough drinking water to households, especially in the capital, according to Miyahuna, which said that consumption rose by 6 per cent during summer of this year, compared to the average monthly consumption.
Shatnawi said that much more pressure on the water supply system is attributed to the Iraqi population hosted by the Kingdom (which he estimated at 650,000).
Jordan is one of the world's top 10 thirstiest countries.
A major solution to water shortage is the Disi water conveyance project, which will be implemented over the coming four years by a coalition of companies led by Turkey's GAMA.
The winning coalition would dig 55 wells in the Disi area bordering Saudi Arabia for pumping 100mcm of water annually through a 320-kilometre pipeline.
© Jordan Times 2007
