Project to link 100,000 Amman residents to wastewater network — minister

AMMAN — Construction will commence this year on a project to link over 100,000 residents of north Amman to the sewage network, government officials said on Saturday.

The project will be implemented in three phases and will conclude by 2018, Water Minister Hazem Nasser said in a statement.

“The project will cost 33 million euros [around JD25 million]. A total of 30 million euros have been secured via a soft loan from the German Development Bank, while the remainder is from the Water Authority of Jordan,” Nasser said.

The minister highlighted that the project seeks to improve water and wastewater services in the north of the capital and also to protect the area’s springs and underground water from contamination.

Under the scheme, main and tertiary wastewater pipes will be extended to link households in north Amman to sewage services.

Meanwhile, the Abu Nseir Wastewater Treatment Plant will be shut down and the sewage will be transferred via new pipelines to As Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant in Zarqa Governorate, 22km northeast of Amman.

The ministry announced in August that it would close the plant by summer 2017, to end one of the capital’s longstanding environmental problems.

The plant, which was established in the late 1980s in north Amman to treat 4,000 cubic metres of wastewater per day, has long been a source of air pollution and a potential hazard to underground water.

Nasser said that 64 per cent of the population is currently linked to the sewage network, highlighting that the ministry has plans to raise the figure to 70 per cent by 2020.

Meanwhile, an official at the ministry said that given the water scarcity in Jordan, treated wastewater is an important resource.

“Treated wastewater constitutes 12 per cent of the country’s water budget. The Kingdom treats annually up to 125,000 cubic metres of wastewater, 95 per cent of which is used for the irrigation of certain crops,” the official told The Jordan Times.