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Ammon News - Minister of Water and Irrigation, Mutasim Saaidan, and German Ambassador to the Kingdom, Bernhard Kampmann, on Wednesday inaugurated a project to rehabilitate irrigation networks and pumping stations in the Ghawr Kabid district, in Balqa Governorate, with a cost of JD16.8 million.

According to a statement by the ministry, Saeedan said that the project aims to improve the efficiency of irrigation and services provided to farmers in the area, indicating that the ministry seeks, through the Jordan Valley Authority, to provide all possible facilities to farmers.

"The project includes redesigning and implementing new irrigation networks in different areas with a length of 177 km," the minister said, adding that new pumping stations were constructed, along with rehabilitating the (TO 86) pumping station, installing 1,210 outlets for agricultural units and connecting them to the SCADA system to serve 45,000 dunums of agricultural units in the southern Shuna district.

Saaidan also praised the strong bilateral relations and the continued support of the German government to the Kingdom, especially for the water sector, as this project is funded by the federal republic and represented by Germany’s KfW Development Bank, as part of the climate change adaptation program in the water sector.

For his part, Ambassador Kampmann stressed the importance of joint German-Jordanian efforts to reduce water loss and contribute to preserving its resources, especially in light of climate change and its impact on the water sector.

Director of KfW Amman office, Mark Schwiete, said that water resources in Jordan are limited and have been severely affected in recent years due to the Syrian refugees and the impact of climate change, indicating that such project comes to reduce the exposure of agricultural communities in the Jordan Valley to climate change and to improve irrigation water supplies.