By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN – The Ministry of Water and Irrigation plans to provide a constant water supply in the Kingdom to reduce deterioration of water networks and pollution, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

The ministry has identified the implementation of the Disi Water Conveyance Project as an opportunity to switch from the weekly water distribution programme to a continuous water supply, according to Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Najjar.

“Our responsibility is to deliver water to people without the need to store water and use it gradually, especially since many underprivileged people cannot afford to store water,” he said in a joint press conference with Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Nabil Sharif yesterday.

During the press conference, he briefed reporters on the progress of various water projects in the Kingdom, which are estimated at JD400 million.

“Our policies and strategies aim at transforming water distribution into a constant supply, and hopefully the Disi project will help us achieve that by providing abundant water,” Najjar said.

The multimillion dollar project aims to convey water from the ancient Disi aquifer in the south of Jordan to Amman, supplying the capital with 100 million cubic metres (mcm) of water annually by the end of 2012.

The water minister highlighted that once the capital starts receiving water from the Disi project, water that used to be pumped to the capital from sources outside Amman will be diverted to governorates with water shortages.

“What used to be pumped to Amman from Azraq will be pumped to other governorates,” Najjar said.

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation pumps around 25mcm of water annually from the Azraq wetlands, which is witnessing a depletion in water levels as 20 per cent of its water is being pumped for drinking water, while 30 per cent is diverted for irrigation purposes.

“This [switching to a constant water supply] requires time and capital investments… we have started allocating the needed capital for the rehabilitation and renovation of old deteriorating networks,” the minister said, underscoring that the ministry’s plan seeks to reduce water loss and pollution.

Deterioration of the water network and breaks in pipelines allow microbiological pollutants in, water officials said previously, a fact they attributed to inconsistent water pressure, as high water pressure and constant flow prevent pipeline corrosion.

Pumping water for a few hours once a week creates negative pressure in the pipes once the water flow stops, and pipes suck in surrounding pollutants through breaks in the network.

But scant water sources in Jordan, categorised as the fourth poorest country in the world in terms of water availability, forced the Kingdom in the early 1980s to apply the water distribution programme.