AMMAN -- Renovation work on the Ain Ghazal Wastewater Treatment Plant will commence early next year to address one of the capital's health and environment hotspots, officials said on Wednesday.
The refurbishment of the treatment plant is aimed at ending the emission of bad odours, a long-standing nuisance to area residents, and addressing traffic congestion created by scores of wastewater tankers, which line up to unload sewage at the plant, Water Minister Hazem Nasser said.
The rehabilitation of the plant will be implemented as part of a JD2 million agreement, under which a local contractor will increase the number of sewage discharge points at the plant from eight to 14 and raise the capacity of the sewage tankers' treatment unit from 10,000 cubic metres daily to 16,000 cubic metres, Nasser added.
"In addition, a new state-of-the-art treatment unit will be established to prevent the emission of bad odours, thus creating a clean environment for area residents and reducing the amount of organic materials that reach the Khirbet Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant via sewage tankers," the minister said at the signing ceremony.
The Ain Ghazal plant, located in east Amman near the Amman-Zarqa highway, was established in 1963.
It comprises two wastewater treatment units -- one receives and treats 150,000 cubic metres of wastewater from Amman's wastewater network, and the second treats 10,000 cubic metres of wastewater daily, dumped by over 150 tankers, Water Ministry Spokesperson Omar Salameh told The Jordan Times.
There are 27 wastewater treatment plants in the Kingdom that treat 122 million cubic metres of water per year, 115 million cubic metres of which are used for industrial purposes and irrigating certain crops, such as fodder, according to the ministry.
The rehabilitation and expansion of the Ain Ghazal treatment plant is funded by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) grant, according to Salameh.
In 2011, the GCC allocated $5 billion to finance development projects in Jordan during the period 2012-2016.
The grant is divided between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, with each country paying $1.25 billion.
A list of development projects was prepared by a committee, with some $425.40 million allocated for water and sanitation projects.
© Jordan Times 2013
