Water Authority resumes pumping drinking water from 20 artesian wells

The Water Authority on Sunday resumed pumping drinking water from 20 artesian wells to citizens in the northern governorates after lab tests indicated they were free of pollutants, a Water Ministry official said on Sunday.The Water Authority had suspended pumping water from 34 artesian wells that supply drinking water to a wide segment of citizens in the northern areas, following the emergence of diarrhoea and high fever cases earlier this month.

Water from the remaining 14 wells will be pumped as soon as the results of lab tests being conducted by the Royal Scientific Society are officially announced, Water Ministry Spokesperson Adnan Zu’bi told The Jordan Times yesterday.

“This morning we started pumping drinking water at a rate of 1,200 cubic meters per hour in accordance with the area’s water distribution timetable,” he said.

“Hopefully, by next week,  pumping operations will be back to where they were before the outbreak,” the official added.

The decision comes as a relief for many citizens, as the situation in the area started to reach crisis levels due to the shortage of drinking water.

Water tankers took advantage of the situation, charging exorbitant rates.

Residents of a village in Irbid Governorate said they had to pay JD30 for a six-cubic-metre tanker, which used to cost JD15 before the crisis.

In response, the Water Authority in cooperation with governors of northern districts on Sunday announced a uniform price of JD2 per cubic metre, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Acting Director of the Water Authority Khaldoun Khoshman said security personnel would be stationed at wells to organise and oversee the process of selling drinking water to area residents, Petra added.

The ministry’s decision to resume water supplies did not include the town of Mansheyet Bani Hassan, where the water network will be replaced under a government decision.

In the meanwhile, Water Authority tankers will provide area residents with their water needs free of charge.

Only three new diarrhoea and high fever cases reported to the Mansheyet Bani Hassan Health Centre on Sunday, bringing the total since the beginning of the outbreak to 1,040, Mafraq health director Suleiman Affash told The Jordan Times yesterday.

He said one of these three cases was hospitalised and expected to be discharged within 24 hours, highlighting that no other patients remained in any hospital.