The FINANCIAL — The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) and the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have launched the construction of a wastewater pipeline today that will relieve pressure on the country’s capital Amman and generate water available for irrigation.
The pipeline will connect the existing Ain Ghazal pre-treatment plant in the capital with the As-Samra wastewater plant in the north of Jordan, serving the inhabitants of Amman and Zarqa. The construction will also reduce untreated sewage overflows and alleviate the risks of environmental contamination and pollution of surface water in the area surrounding the Ain Ghazal treatment plant.
The construction is financed by an EBRD loan of €22.5 million to the Water Authority of Jordan and supported with grants (GBP 14 million provided by the FCDO, €4.6 million from the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund and US$ 2 million from the GCFF). The total amount of the package is €45 million.
The investment is part of the EBRD response to the refugee crisis and aims to upgrade Jordan’s wastewater system and increase its resilience. Jordan hosts more than 1.4 million refugees from Syria who are direct users of municipal services, including water supply and sanitation.
Water is a scarce resource in Jordan and there is a critical need to invest sustainably in the treatment of wastewater. The EBRD addressed this issue previously with investments in the country’s water infrastructure, including the East Zarqa wastewater pipeline and the West Irbid wastewater network.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Philip ter Woort, EBRD Regional Head, Eastern Mediterranean, the British Ambassador to Jordan, Bridget Brind, and Jordan’s Minister of Water and Irrigation, Motasem Saidan, at the Ain Ghazal pre-treatment plant.
Mr ter Woort said: “This partnership with the Water Authority of Jordan, with the support of GCFF and FCDO, will help develop the municipal sector in the country and assist in improving the quality of sewage- and wastewater-treatment infrastructure, contributing to the delivery of better services.”
Since the start of its operations in Jordan in 2012, the EBRD has provided more than €1.4 billion in financing for 54 projects there.
