AMMAN — New water and wastewater projects will be implemented in Baqaa Refugee Camp and Ain Al Basha to improve health and environment conditions, government officials said on Sunday.
Under an agreement signed by Water Authority of Jordan Secretary General Tawfik Habashneh and Oxfam Humanitarian Programme Manager Francesco Rigamonti, the projects are scheduled to be completed within three months.
“The projects will be implemented at a cost of $100,000. They include rehabilitation of water networks to reduce leakage, enhancing water supply, training personnel, raising public awareness and purchasing several pieces of equipment,” Habashneh said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.
Located 13km north of Amman, the Baqaa camp hosts 104,000 registered Palestinian refugees, while Ain Al Basha has a population of more than 80,000 people.
Habashneh added that the projects also seek to improve water supply in the two areas, which have a growing population due to the ongoing influx of Syrian refugees, especially into the northern region.
Water Ministry Spokesperson Omar Salameh told The Jordan Times that the projects are scheduled to be completed before summer starts, underscoring that demand exceeds supply due to limited resources and rising population.
Official figures indicate that the country’s water sector needs $750 million during the next three years to meet the rising demand, aggravated by the continuous influx of Syrian refugees.
Water demand rose by 20 per cent due to hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrians, according to the ministry, which indicated that during the past year, the water sector received $107 million in grants to sustain services in communities hosting refugees, particularly in the northern region.
Since the outbreak of the crisis in Syria, the number of refugees has reached 587,404, with 135,720 of them living in camps.
Over 70 per cent of the Syrian refugees in Jordan live amongst host communities, while the rest are accommodated at the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq Governorate and the Mreijeb Al Fhoud Camp in Zarqa Governorate.
