AMMAN — Authorities have discovered two violations on a water main in Jiza in south Amman, an official at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation said on Saturday.
The 800-millimetre pipe conveys water from the Swaqa station, 70 kilometres south of Amman, to a water station in the Amman National Park, off the airport road, added the official, who preferred to remain unnamed.
The first violation entailed the installation of a pipe that was diverting water to a group of farms located west of the Amman-Aqaba road, while the second illegal pipe was transferring water to a nearby pool with a capacity of thousands of cubic metres, according to the official.
The pool was equipped with huge pumps powered through illegal connections with electricity poles that pumped water to surrounding farms, the official noted.
“The violators were stealing more than 4,000 cubic metres of water per day. These illegal pipes are one of the reasons behind the water shortage in Amman,” the official told The Jordan Times.
A joint team from the Water Ministry, the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna), the Gendarmerie, the Royal Badia Forces and the Public Security Department inspected the site, according to the official.
“We are taking legal procedures against the offenders by referring the cases to the public prosecutor,” the official said.
Last week, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said the government is committed to putting an end to all water violations, describing water theft as a form of corruption.
To this end, the government has drafted new amendments to the Water Authority of Jordan Law, Ensour told MPs last during a Lower House session last Wednesday.
Deputies referred the amended draft to the Agriculture and Water Committee, giving it “urgency status”, and expressed their desire to play a part in protecting the country’s water resources.
Since the ministry launched a crackdown on water violations in August last year, and up until December, more than 7,091 illegal water pipes were dismantled, of which 75.5 per cent were in the capital, according to the ministry’s figures.
The ministry registered 1,919 violations on main water conveyors and 3,360 cases of changing water gauges in Amman alone between August and December last year.
The ministry said it is pressing ahead with its campaign to crack down on violators of the water network, calling on the public to cooperate with authorities and report violations.
