New projects planned to link more Irbid households to sewage network

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation will float tenders by the second quarter of this year for implementing new projects to link more households in Irbid Governorate to the sewage network.

The projects, in Irbid city and Beit Ras town, will be implemented at a cost of 12 million euros (around JD9.5 million) under an EU grant via the German Development Bank (KfW), Water Minister Hazem Nasser said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

The Water Authority of Jordan awarded ILF Consulting Engineers the consultancy services contract for the wastewater networks in Irbid and Beit Ras, around 80km north of Amman. The services include design, tendering and construction supervision for a complete sewer network in Beit Ras and other areas of Irbid.

The projects encompass the construction of about 50 kilometres of sewers and the connection of about 65,000 residents to the central sewer system, according to the company’s website, which said that all the collected wastewater will be reused in agriculture after treatment and that the contract duration is 30 months.

Nasser said the consultancy services contract will cost 886,000 euros, while the sewage network project in Beit Ras, located in the northern part of Irbid, will cost 8 million euros.

In addition, the ministry will implement wastewater projects in neighbourhoods densely populated by Syrian refugees at a cost of 2.2 million euros.

“Water demand is increasing in the northern governorates, which host hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and so is the production of wastewater that is exceeding the capacity of the treatment plants,” the minister noted.

He underscored that the projects will help provide a safe and healthy environment and improve the level of wastewater services to refugees and host communities.

Mohammad Taani, a resident of Beit Ras, welcomed the plan to link his hometown to the sewage network, saying it will help improve the environment and also save money and time consumed in emptying cesspits.

“The entire town dumps its wastewater in cesspits which must be emptied every month or two at a cost of JD70-JD100,” Taani said.

He explained that 80 per cent of the cesspits in Beit Ras are actually ancient underground caves and holes.

“Many of us are worried that one day the ground will sink beneath us due to those cesspits. In addition, they cause health and environment risks whenever they overflow,” Taani told The Jordan Times.

Cesspits cause recurring pollution incidents, especially in the north, because some of them are not built according to standards, or their owners neglect having them emptied which causes them to overflow and reach part of the water network, according to water officials.