Karak residents’ complaints of water shortages are ‘individual’ cases — ministry

AMMAN — Some Karak residents complained that the southern city has been suffering from water shortages in households for the past two weeks, according to activists.

On social media, one resident claimed that houses have not been provided with water for over two weeks, while adding that “many households haven’t been provided with water for more than a month”.

Another resident, Shahem Hanahneh, said that water problems are “common” in Karak, 140km south of Amman, because the city is not equipped with the infrastructure and resources to pump water to all of its areas.

He told The Jordan Times that, although the residents have tried contacting Karak authorities, “there are still many issues in the sector”, especially in villages.

For his part, Ministry of Water and Irrigation Spokesperson Omar Salameh stressed that there has been a 25 per cent drop in complaints from Karak residents compared to previous years.

With the implementation of the Mujeb project, water authorities have been able to pump additional water and supply villages in the northern parts of Karak. 

Over 500 cubic metres have been pumped per hour to the area, which amounts to five million cubic metres every month, he noted. 

Salameh added that villages which used to suffer from water shortages, such as Al Qaser and Al Amr in Karak, “now have sufficient amounts to meet the requirements”.

He said that, with the rise in temperatures during summer, citizens consume more water, thereby causing a decrease in water supply to households in the city.

“Out of the overall water distribution in the Kingdom, the share of water resources supplied to the southern governorates is much higher than the amounts supplied to the north, because of variations in the geographic properties of the areas,” the spokesperson added.

The cases shared on social media are “individual”, he said, explaining that there is no recorded shortage of water in the Kingdom and that the quantities of water supplied are much better now than they were in the past.

Salameh added that very few households witness disruptions in their water supply, which are due to the “electrical failures for a short period of time”.  

“The water supply is fair to all regions in the country now that the National Water Carrier project has been implemented,” he said. 

The National Water Carrier project links all water resources in Jordan, with the  aim of pumping water to areas that lack water resources in the northern and southern governorates of Jordan.

Salameh urged residents to use groundwater reservoirs in households, in order to cut down on the consumption of water and to conserve the Kingdom’s limited water resources.