Ammon News - The Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Water Resources and Environment Office signed Thursday a Fixed Amount Reimbursement Agreement (FARA) for the 3rd phase of a water loss reduction project, at a cost of $26 million, of which $20 million was a USAID contribution and $6 million was a Miyahuna contribution.

Under the agreement, a series of water loss reduction works will be implemented in some areas in Amman, Zarqa and Salt, replacing about 130,000 water meters, in addition to working on strengthening the partnership with the private sector and reducing physical losses by enhancing leak detection processes and developing technical services and capabilities of technical personnel.

Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohammad Najjar highlighted some of the challenges that the water sector faces, including climatic fluctuations and the decline in available potable water sources due to poor rainfall, stressing that the water sector has an ambitious plan to reduce water losses after updating the national strategy to reduce loss at a rate of 1-2 percent annually to reach 25 percent by 2040.

Najjar lauded USAID's efforts to support government efforts, noting that the agreement comes to meet the water loss project's achievements and objectives over the next four years.