Mercy Corps launches flood resilience project in Madaba’s Ma’in

AMMAN — Mercy Corps on Tuesday launched the “Rawafid” campaign as a part of the project “Building Communities’ Flood Resilience in Jordan” in Ma’in in the Madaba Governorate.

Government officials and local community representatives attended the event, according to a Mercy Corps statement. 

The campaign aims to implement a number of activities in the Ma’in area that will alleviate floods and torrential rains during the winter. Mercy Corps, in coordination with the Civil Defence Directorate, will hold community awareness sessions over a threeday period on how to evacuate, rescue, and provide first aid assistance in communities during floods. 

Moreover, the organisation aims to plant more than 250 trees over a two-day period in coordination with the Madaba Agriculture Directorate, the Greater Madaba Municipality, and volunteers from the local Ma’in community. Trees will be planted on the sides of valleys and main roads to help prevent soil erosion during floods.

The “Rawafid” campaign will also support the cleaning and opening of the valleys’ streams to ensure proper drainage of rainwater.  These activities will be conducted in cooperation with the Directorate of Madaba Works, the Municipality of Greater Madaba, and volunteers from the local community in the Ma’in area over a period of five days.

At the beginning of the event, Mercy Corps country director Kari Diener said the project guarantees a participatory work approach with members of the local community and governmental bodies to mitigate the environmental and societal impact of floods.

Diener said: “We hope that the Rawafid campaign will achieve the desired results and be a first step in Mercy Corps direction towards building the resilience and response of communities to floods.”

The project is at work in four regions namely Ma’in, Sweimeh, Wadi Musa and Northern Azraq. The project also identifies local needs, designing and implementing a number of infrastructure projects.

Mercy Corps is an international non-profit organisation operating in more than 40 countries around the world. The organisation works in the field of international relief and development, and economic development and aims to build safe, productive, and just societies.