Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 14, 1999
Maraqa dismisses allegation of continued
contamination of Zai's water plant
By Saad G. Hattar
AMMAN — Minister of Health Ishaq Maraqa on Monday stressed that water supplies from the Zai Water Treatment Plant meet international standards and dismissed recent remarks by a ministry official who claimed the plant's output was still contaminated.
“The official's statement is baseless and it badly affects the country,” Maraqa told the Jordan Times. “The water coming from Zai is not contaminated.”
On Sunday, Health Ministry official Ahmad Arafat stirred a controversy when he said at the national water conference that water treated at the Zai was still contaminated.
Last summer, Amman residents faced a water crisis when authorities discovered that water from the Zai plant was contaminated and they were forced to shut off supplies in order to clean up the problem.
Arafat's allegations drew mixed reactions on the second day of the conference.
While Lower House Deputy Salameh Hiyari supported Arafat's claim, participants from the Water Ministry criticised him and sought to discredit his remarks.
Maraqa said he questioned Arafat about his “groundless remarks,” and the official “apologised” for the incident.
The minister said punitive measures had been taken against Arafat, but did not disclose the nature of the measures.
“Only in less than one per cent of the cases are the standards of Zai supplies detected to be slightly below qualifications, a percentage which does not merit any concern,” Maraqa explained.
The minister said such slight aberrations “do not affect the quality of water, nor does it affect the health of consumers.”
Otherwise, he said, the ministry would immediately take action and halt supplies from the plant.
Water from the Zai Treatment Plant covers nearly 60 per cent of the needs of Greater Amman, the biggest consumer of the country's potable water, estimated at 300 million cubic metres a year.
Maraqa said the Health Ministry, in cooperation with international parties, conducts hundreds of various lab tests per year to check the quality of Zai waters.
After the incident the Health Ministry replaced Arafat with Hussein Khandaq, who conceded that differences existed between the health and water ministries, but that the situation was under control.