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AMMAN — Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) CEO Abdel Karim Alawin on Tuesday held press conference to talk about the controversial gas cylinders imported from India.

Alawin was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying that none of the gas cylinders were distributed to consumers.

The issue of the imported gas cylinders, estimated at 250,000 units, has been a hot topic in the local media over the past few days as the director general of the Jordan Institution for Standards and Metrology (JISM), Haydar Al Zaben, has reportedly said that the cylinders do not meet local standards.

Zaben was quoted by several news websites and newspapers as saying that he had received phone calls from several influential people in the country to allow the “suspicious” shipment into the local market.

But at Tuesday’s press conference Alawin accused the testing agency of not having the necessary equipment to carry out the proper tests on the imported cylinders.

He said the JPRC had received the go ahead from JISM and the testing lab to import the gas cylinders from the manufacturing company in India, according to Petra.

“The JPRC was given the green light from JISM and its accredited testing lab to sign a contract with the Indian company to import gas cylinders,” Alawin said, adding that these two agencies sent their technical staff to the Indian manufacturer before floating the purchase tender.

He said JISM and its accredited testing lab supervised the rehabilitation of the Indian company’s production lines to export a total of 250,000 gas cylinders to Jordan, attributing the negative test results to the failure to provide suitable samples.

Alawin also said that the government has formed a committee comprising the head of the Lower House Energy Committee, the president of the Gas Stations Owners Association, the JISM director, the dean of the University of Jordan’s engineering faculty and the director of the Energy Ministry’s oil derivatives department to supervise the laboratory tests on the samples from the shipment conducted by a German firm.

He added that the entry of the Indian gas cylinders to the local market will be based on the results of the technical test conducted by the German lab, which is accredited by the European Union and also JISM.

However, in statements to the Ammon news website in response to Alawin’s remarks, Zaben said the JISM tests that were conducted in local and international labs were accurate, and the cylinders will not be allowed to enter the local market.

“Jordanians’ safety is the institution’s first priority,” he told Ammonnews.net.

Also on Tuesday, the Consumer Protection Society called on the government to return the cylinders to their country of origin, urging authorities to make the details of the case available to the public.

The Jordan Times tried to contact Zaben and Alawin several times but they could not be reached for comment. 

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation will start evaluating the condition of water networks in south Amman to improve water supply before the beginning of summer, officials said on Tuesday.

Water Minister Hazem Nasser instructed the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) and the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna) to carry out studies of south Amman neighbourhoods in order to rehabilitate worn-out networks before the dry season begins.

Water Ministry Spokesperson Omar Salameh told The Jordan Times that the minister issued the instructions after meeting with residents of south Amman, who complained about weak water supply, particularly in Jabal Al Manarah.

The water shortage in South Amman is caused by unreported violations on the network and resources, according to Nasser.

“WAJ and Miyahuna pump more than 550 cubic metres per hour from Al Hassa wells and 400 cubic metres per hour from Amman to the Jiza District in south Amman. This amount of water exceeds the share pumped to densely populated areas such as Ruseifa,” a ministry statement quoted the minister as saying.

Recent official figures indicate that 70 per cent of water loss in Jordan is due to theft and illegal usage. The ministry dismantled more than 7,091 illegal water pipes between August and December last year, 75.5 per cent of which were in the capital.

AJLOUN — Educating young people about reproductive health issues is important and should not be treated as “taboo”, university students said on Tuesday.

“Parents, and even teachers at schools, usually avoid talking about reproductive health, despite its importance to educate the younger generation about right and wrong practices,” said Shifa Khatatbeh, a university student in Ajloun, some 70km northwest of Amman.

Khawlah Freihat agreed with Khatatbeh, adding that even if parents are willing to talk about the issue, “we prefer to discuss it with our friends.”

“It would be good, however, if such education is being introduced at schools,” the 21-year old told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of a training course offered by the UNFPA’s YPEER network at the Kufranjeh youth centre in Ajloun.

“I now know more about sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive health, which is an important issue for any girl to learn,” the Kufranjeh resident added.

Saleh Mohammad, a YPEER trainer in Irbid, noted that reproductive health issues are rarely tackled among the youths in “my governorate, so I decided to volunteer as a trainer, after doing a training of trainers’ course with YPEER”.

“I received training in 2011 and benefited greatly from it. When I train others now, I notice that they want to obtain as much information as they can about the issue, because they have no other means to learn about it,” said Mohammad, who is studying accounting at university.

YPEER, which Jordan joined late in 2008, is a network of nonprofit organisations and governmental institutions; it includes thousands of young people who work in many areas surrounding adolescent reproductive health to empower young people to make responsible decisions about their lives and health in many countries around the globe.

Ziad Yaish, UNFPA assistant representative in Jordan, said the programme in the Kingdom is a “pioneering project” at the global level.

“YPEER Jordan proved its success and was rewarded as the best project in the world by the UNFPA in 2013 for its health camps,” Yaish told The Jordan Times.

“A delegation from the Saudi education ministry is currently on a visit to Jordan to become acquainted with the YPEER experience,” he added.

So far, 460 young people have received training with YPEER, and they are training their peers across the country.

During a media visit to the Kufranjeh centre, Jamal Fayez, a representative of the Saudi education ministry said the delegation is visiting Jordan and Oman to get more information about the YPEER programmes in both countries to implement the appropriate one in his country.

AMMAN — The Jordan Medical Association (JMA) seeks to put an end to assaults against doctors by directly referring violators to the Attorney General’s Department, JMA President Hashem Abu Hassan said on Tuesday.

A total of 25 cases of violence against doctors on duty were reported in 2013, most of them in public hospitals, Abu Hassan told reporters.

“The association, the Ministry of Health and the judicial authority cooperated to find a radical solution for this issue; violence against doctors on duty is now considered a crime,” he said.

In the past, Abu Hassan noted, the doctor and the assailant used to file complaints against each other.

“The association hired two lawyers to defend doctors in such cases,” he said.

Doctors found guilty of malpractice should be punished according to the law; however, no doctor should be suspended before undisputed evidence of malpractice is presented, Abu Hassan noted.

He added that 170 complaints were filed against doctors in 2013, of which, 24 were over fees.

The JMA, he said, works to defend the rights of its members to guarantee their economic and professional security, adding that association representatives are scheduled to meet with Health Minister Ali Hiasat next Sunday to discuss the situation of public sector physicians.

“Doctors working at the Health Ministry should not to be referred to retirement before the age of 65 unless they are in administrative posts,” Abu Hassan said.

The JMA also seeks to increase the financial incentives awarded to public sector physicians, he added, noting that the ministry hired more than 600 doctors over the past three months.

“Experienced Jordanian doctors are sought after in Arab Gulf countries, which means that the association and the ministry have to improve the living conditions of these doctors so they remain in the Kingdom,” he said, adding that public healthcare facilities treat around 65 per cent of Jordanians.

AMMAN — Qatar wants to benefit from Jordan’s experience in enhancing the judicial system to facilitate litigation procedures, a senior Qatari official said on Tuesday.

During meetings with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, Justice Minister Bassam Talhouni and Judicial Council President Hisham Tal, Chairman of Qatar’s Supreme Judicial Council Masoud Ameri expressed his admiration of the Justice Ministry’s efforts to enhance the legal system and the technical advancements it has adopted to ease court procedures.

Ameri said Qatar’s “future judges” programme, which was inspired by Jordan’s judicial reform projects, has proved successful, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Last week, the Justice Ministry announced a three-year strategy to speed up court proceedings and fully automate the judiciary.

The 2014-2016 strategy will also develop the Justice Ministry to become an efficient institute that will support the independence of the judiciary and strengthen society’s faith in the judicial system, according to Talhouni.

In addition, the strategy aims at drafting policies and modern legislative initiatives, and safeguarding the legal rights and freedoms of citizens.

During his meeting with Ensour on Tuesday, Ameri invited the premier to visit Qatar on behalf of Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al Thani, stressing that Jordanian-Qatari ties are “flawless”, Petra reported.

Ensour said Jordanian-Qatari relations have reached this level under the continuous support of His Majesty King Abdullah and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, adding that there is further room to expand cooperation.  

AMMAN — The Ministry of Education and USAID on Tuesday officially launched the National Campaign to Support Kindergartens (KGs) to increase KG enrolment from 59 per cent to reach all children in Jordan.

Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat said one of main reasons behind the academic weakness of some children in the first three years of primary school is that they did not have an opportunity to access early childhood education.

A year of early childhood education will be added to the compulsory education plan over a five-year period starting from underprivileged areas, at an expected cost of around JD160 million, according to the minister.

“The ministry will organise a national awareness campaign on the importance of preschool across the country,” Thneibat said at the launching ceremony.

In remarks late last year, the minister cited a 2012 study which showed that some 100,000 students in the first three grades are incapable of reading Arabic or English letters.

Alia Arabiyat, director of the childhood department at the Education Ministry, said at the launch that the campaign invests in early childhood — a very rich learning stage.

“The national campaign will create an interactive national curriculum for the KG level, in addition to developing training programmes for KG teachers,” she added.

During the 2012-2013 academic year, 85,463 children were enrolled in 1,060 public and 1,556 private KGs across the Kingdom, Arabiyat noted.

Yet, not all children get to have that advantage.

“We need an additional 814 KGs in the northern governorates, 1,840 in the central region and 214 in the south in order for all preschool stage children to be able to enrol in KGs,” she said.

Muna Abbas, director of the Education Reform Support Programme, which is adopting the campaign, said a number of supportive activities will be announced to the public.

The campaign, which started in early January and is scheduled to conclude by the end of March, aims to raise parents’ awareness of the importance of KG and to increase the participation of youths and community sectors to support KGs.

“We seek to change the rigid concept of learning… by practising methods of learning by playing,” Abbas said.

Lee Cohen, service officer at USAID, said the agency and the Education Ministry have been able to achieve “phenomenal progress” in a short amount of time.

“We have gone from 15 KGs in the Kingdom to over 1,000,” he said, warning that the country is still facing “an early childhood education crisis” since 40 per cent of all children do not attend KGs.

Cohen noted that children who attend preschool go to college “far more often” than those who do not, urging institutions and organisations to invest in early childhood education as it is the “best investment” they can make.

“If parents don’t fundamentally believe in the power of early childhood education, we can build a thousand more KGs and it will not make a difference,” he concluded.