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Ammon News - Jordan Times

AMMAN — One of the Khaw pumping stations in Zarqa Governorate is scheduled to undergo renovations next year to improve its capacity and efficiency, a water ministry official said on Saturday.

“There are two pumping stations in Khaw in Zarqa. The older one, which desperately needs maintenance, will be renovated to raise its capacity,” Ministry of Water and Irrigation Secretary General Bassem Tulfah told The Jordan Times over the phone.

“The ministry has floated a tender recently to renovate the station on a build-operate-transfer basis,” Tulfah noted.

The old Khaw pumping station receives its water from wells in the Azraq Basin and other nearby aquifers and then pumps the water to Amman, Zarqa and Ruseifa through a pipeline.

The station currently pumps five million cubic metres (mcm) of water a year, he said, noting that Amman’s and Zarqa’s water needs are growing and that the station can pump more water if it is rehabilitated.

“The ministry has been renovating the water infrastructure in Amman in preparation for receiving water from the Disi project. The renovation of the plant is part of our preparations,” Tulfah said, referring to the Disi Water Conveyance Project, which is expected to begin delivering water to the capital next summer.

Being carried out on a build-operate-transfer basis, the Disi project will provide 110mcm of water to the capital via pipeline that will start at the ancient Disi aquifer in southern Jordan and end in Amman, passing through several water stations in Maan, Tafileh, Karak and Madaba.

Under the Disi project, which started in 2007 and is scheduled for completion in July, 64 wells are being drilled, 55 of which will be used for the generation of water, while nine will serve as piezometer wells to measure the elevation of water.

More than 90 per cent of the Disi project has been completed, according to officials at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, who have claimed that households in the capital and other governorates would receive constant supplies of water once the Disi project started pumping to the capital.

Water in Jordan is currently supplied to households under a distribution programme, with each household receiving water once during a certain period, usually between a week and 10 days.

Scarce water resources in the country compelled the Kingdom to initiate the programme in the early 1980s to conserve limited resources while ensuring a sustainable supply of water.