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At the Zara Water Plant Site
Dead Sea, Jordan
Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to take part in today’s ground breaking ceremony of the Wadi Ma’in, Zara and Mujib water treatment and conveyance project.
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Minister of Water & Irrigation and USAID Mission Director join the local community and implementers of the Zara-Ma'in water project in celebrating the start of the project. |
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Water is essential for development in every sector in Jordan. USAID is working as a partner with the Government of Jordan in many areas to benefit all Jordanian citizens – by creating jobs, improving the quality of health care, supporting good governance, and improving education. But the water sector represents the largest part of our assistance program.
We have worked together for three years with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation since the conception of the Zara project. Of course there have been problems along the way, and a great deal of commitment and dedication has been necessary to overcome them.
I would like to particularly thank His Excellency Dr. Hazem Al-Naser, His Excellency Dr. Saa’d Bakri, Engineer Nazir Abu Arqoob, and the High Steering Committee members for their selfless services and resolve to make this project a reality.
This unique project that we are inaugurating today will be completed in March 2006. As many of you know well, the project will have tremendous impact when it is fully operational. It will:
- Intercept the surface flows from three existing springs that are now flowing into the Dead Sea, treat them in a desalination water treatment plant, and pump the water to Greater Amman,
- This will increase the water supplies of Greater Amman by about 40%, directly benefiting two million people,
- It will also provide additional water supplies needed to boost the local economy in the Dead Sea area, and
- It will restore the water supplies that are currently diverted from Zarqa and the Northern Governorates back to those areas, and so benefit an additional half a million people
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Mission Director, Ms. Anne Aarnes, emphasizes that USAID's water infrastructure projects are about people and improving their lives. The Zara-Ma'in water project complements two other USAID projects that will address Amman's water and wastewater challenges. |
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Modern, sophisticated technology will be used in building the treatment system for this project. Training of plant operators will ensure technology transfer, and in the process enhance the technical skills of Jordanians.
In addition to the Zara project, USAID is funding two other construction projects that will benefit the residents of Greater Amman. Together, these three projects will complement each other. The first of these projects is the Greater Amman Water project. It will address the loss of water from leaks in the transmission and distribution systems. This means that more water will be available for people’s use. And, in turn, more wastewater will be generated. So, we are working together on a second project at As-Samra, which was inaugurated yesterday, to manage the treatment of this increased wastewater. As a step further, treated wastewater from the As Samra project will be redirected for reuse in irrigation and industry. These three projects together are very important. All three, especially the Zara Ma’in project, will directly benefit millions of Jordanians.
So in closing, I would like to say that USAID is extremely proud to work in a close partnership with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. And we look forward to the day in the not too distant future when these programs will be in full operation and helping to improve the economy of the country and the lives of the people.
Thank you.
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