Ministry to follow up on water supply to avoid cuts during eid

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation has created a monitoring and follow-up programme on water supply for Eid Al Fitr holiday to prevent water cuts, a government official said on Tuesday.

The monitoring and follow-up programme will cover all parts of the Kingdom, according to the ministry’s spokesperson, Omar Salameh, who noted that the ministry’s teams will make sure that the water supply remains undisrupted during the four-day public holiday.

All ministries and public departments will be on holiday from Friday, June 15, to Monday, June 18, in observance of the Eid Al Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Eid Al Fitr is due to start on Friday, June 15 or on Saturday, June 16, depending on the sighting of the moon of the new lunar month.

“The ministry has set up scores of teams, each designated for a certain area. They will be tasked with following up on the water distribution programme and [ensuring] that each area is receiving the allocated water amounts,” Salameh told The Jordan Times.

Under the water distribution programme, households across the Kingdom receive water once during a certain period, usually between seven to ten days, on a rotating basis. Scarce water resources in Jordan compelled the Kingdom to initiate the programme in the early 1980s to conserve limited resources while ensuring a sustainable supply of water.

“The ministry and its affiliate institutions have arranged for the programme to sustain water and wastewater services during the public holiday. In addition to the follow-up and monitoring programme, the ministry’s emergency and complaints centre will be operating around-the-clock,” Salameh highlighted.

The ministry announced in May that it had increased the year’s water allocations from 996 million cubic metres (mcm) in 2017 to 1,068mcm this year, according to Salameh, who called on the public to contact the ministry’s unified emergency number (117116) for complaints on water and wastewater services.

“The public is also urged to report suspected water violations,” the spokesperson highlighted, noting that several water violations were stopped due to the cooperation of the public with the ministry as part of the ongoing national campaign to end violations on water resources and networks.

Under the campaign, launched in 2013, the government has saved 120mcm of fresh water over the past five years by stopping more than 36,661 violations on water mains and networks and sealing 1,022 illegal wells across the country.