Authorities drilling 15 wells in north to meet summer demand

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation is drilling 15 new wells in the north of the Kingdom in anticipation of a rise in demand for water during summer, according to government officials.

The new wells are being drilled in Mafraq, Ramtha, Irbid and the Northern Badia to generate 3.7 million cubic metres of water per year, the ministry’s spokesperson, Omar Salameh, said on Wednesday.

The wells are expected to be completed within nine months after an agreement was signed earlier this week to drill the new wells, Salameh said.

Meanwhile, Water Minister Hazem Nasser said in a statement recently issued that drilling the new wells seeks to alleviate the impact of over-population in the northern governorates, which host hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Nasser highlighted that the wells are part of the ministry’s “resilience plan”, which seeks to address the exceptional surging demand for water in light of scant rainfall and the influx of more Syrian refugees into the country.

The resilience plan proposes the implementation of new water infrastructure projects in case Syrians continue to take refuge in the Kingdom over the next few years, according to the ministry.

“Despite all the measures taken to improve supply and cope with the increasing pressure on water supply, the ministry is incurring huge burdens in meeting the increase in demand for water,” Nasser noted.

Drilling the new wells will cost 4 million euros, according to the minister, who said the German Development Bank is funding the project.

He said that a local contractor will be in charge of drilling the new wells, noting that wells in Al Dafyaneh and Um Hussain (Al Rfaiyat) areas in Mafraq, some 80km northeast of the capital, are scheduled to be ready before the start of summer to increase water availability.

Jordan has so far given sanctuary to some 600,000 of the 2.5 million Syrians who have fled their country since the onset of the conflict in March 2011, UN figures show, but unofficial figures suggest they could amount to one million.

The Zaatari Refugee Camp, around 90km northeast of Amman, is now home to 100,000 Syrians.

Another 700,000 Syrians who do not hold the refugee status also live in the Kingdom, some of whom came before the crisis erupted in 2011.