Ammon News - JT- Construction of a pipeline to transfer water from the Disi Water Conveyance Project to the northern governorates will commence in the second quarter of next year, a government official said on Thursday.

The pipeline, which will be extended between Abu Alanda in south Amman and Khaw in Zarqa Governorate, is designed to channel 30 million cubic metres of water per year to the north, where water per capita is the lowest in the country, Water Ministry Spokesperson Omar Salameh said.

“Technical teams at the Water Authority of Jordan will complete the pipeline’s studies in early 2014 and construction will commence in early April,” Salameh told The Jordan Times in a phone interview.

In addition, implementation of another “strategic pipeline” to transfer water from the Khaw Pumping Station in Zarqa Governorate to the Zaatari area in Mafraq Governorate will begin early next year and will be completed within 15 months, he added.

The pipelines will be established to address pressure on water in the north, which suffers from an acute water shortage caused by limited resources, violations to main water lines and deteriorating networks, while the situation has worsened with the influx of Syrian refugees, according to ministry officials.

The total number of Syrians living in Jordan is estimated at 1.3 million, over half-a-million of whom are refugees who arrived in the Kingdom following the onset of the conflict in Syria in March 2011, according to official figures.

Over 70 per cent of the Syrian refugees in Jordan live amongst host communities, while the rest are accommodated at the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq Governorate and the Mreijeb Al Fhoud Camp in Zarqa Governorate.

Meanwhile, studies on extending pipelines to convey water from the Disi project to the southern governorates of Tafileh, Maan and Karak are under way and expected to be completed “within a few weeks”, according to Salameh.

“The ministry will float tenders to construct the pipelines early next year, and they are scheduled to be completed before the start of next summer,” the official highlighted.

Construction of the pipelines is part of the ministry’s water re-distribution plan, which was announced on July 10, when the Disi project was officially launched.

Carried out on a build-operate-transfer basis by Turkish company GAMA, the Disi project entailed the construction of a 325-kilometre pipeline to convey 100 million cubic metres annually from the ancient Disi aquifer in southern Jordan to the capital.

The water is being transferred to Amman via pipeline, which passes through several water stations in Maan, Tafileh, Karak and Madaba.