Madaba water declared free of bacteria following lab tests

AMMAN — Authorities on Thursday afternoon resumed pumping water from Madaba’s main water resource following lab tests that confirmed the water was free from bacterial pathogens, government officials said on Thursday.

Authorities stopped pumping water from the Waleh and Heidan reservoirs on Thursday morning after news reports circulated claiming that the water was contaminated with bacteria, Ministry of Water and Irrigation Spokesperson Omar Salameh said.

“As a precautionary measure, pumping of water from the reservoir, which receives the underground water of the Waleh and Heidan group of wells in Madaba, was immediately suspended while samples were collected,” Salameh told The Jordan Times.

The ministries of health and water and irrigation said in a joint statement on Thursday that the 24 samples of water collected from the reservoir showed that the water is free of bacterial pathogens and meets Jordan’s microbiological standards for water.

“The samples were tested at four different labs affiliated with the two ministries and the Jordan Water Company [Miyahuna], which runs Madaba’s water and wastewater services,” another government official noted.

The official, who preferred to remain unnamed, said that the news reports claiming that water at the reservoir was contaminated created panic among citizens in Madaba, adding that the source of this “inaccurate information” was later identified.

Madaba, which is located some 30km southwest of Amman, receives its water mainly from the Waleh and Heidan wells, according to Salameh, who noted that the Waleh and Heidan reservoir supplies water to the entirety of Madaba as well as some parts of the capital.

There are over 30,000 water subscribers in Madaba and another 600,000 subscribers in Amman, according to figures from Miyahuna.