Jordan Times
Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Kingdom's water reserves encouraging, Bakri says

By Khalid Dalal

Ministry of Water and Irrigation Secretary General Saad Bakri told The Jordan Times that the dams now hold 74 per cent of their overall storage capacity of 217mcm.

By this time of last year, these dams only held 86mcm, or 46 per cent of their maximum storage capacity, Bakri said.

The official added that the amount of water in the dams is likely to increase in the coming days as more snow melts.

Bakri noted that Jordan is now in a “safe and encouraging position” when it comes to its annual water reserves.

The National Forecasting Centre, meanwhile, said Monday that the weather is expected to be fair today during daytime when temperatures are expected to reach a high of 14ºC, and cloudy and cold in the evening as temperatures will drop to a low of 2ºC.

Head of the Department of Meteorology Ibrahim Saleh told The Jordan Times that another rise in temperatures is expected Wednesday during daytime.

Saleh added that a depression is expected to affect the Kingdom as of Wednesday evening bringing scattered showers of rain. There will also be a slim possibility for light snow on high altitudes, he said.

On Thursday, another drop in temperatures will take place as the maximum for the day is expected to reach 5ºC and the minimum 1ºC.

This cold front will subside Friday, Saleh said.

He added that the last front brought in good amounts of rain, with the highest amount received in Irbid (71 millimetres) followed by Ajloun (52 millimetres), Amman (32.8 millimetres), Balqa (30.4 millimetres), Jerash (30 millimetres), Zarqa (21.9 millimetres), Madaba (16.3 millimetres), Mafraq (13.9 millimetres), Karak (11.8 millimetres) and Tafileh (4.1 millimetres).

No rain was registered in the southern governorates of Maan and Aqaba, he said.

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