By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN – Water-saving devices will be installed in public schools and mosques in Amman starting today to reduce consumption of water, a precious and limited resource in Jordan, according to officials.

Mosques and schools, which are categorised as large water consumers, will be equipped with the new fixtures to lower their consumption of water by 30 per cent, according to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation.

Under a pilot project, the fixtures will be installed in 20 public schools and 20 mosques in the capital to raise awareness on the importance of water conservation and introduce the role of water-saving devices in reducing consumption.

Each school will be fitted with 50 devices, while 30-40 fixtures will be installed in each mosque.

The devices will be distributed and installed free of charge by Sayegh Brothers for Engineering Industries Company, which signed an agreement with the ministry in June to launch the project in Amman.

“The campaign for installing water fixtures is part of the ministry’s plans to raise awareness on the need to reduce water use. The ministry carried out several similar campaigns to encourage efficient water use,” the ministry’s spokesperson and assistant secretary general, Adnan Zu’bi, told The Jordan Times yesterday.

He noted that the project seeks to introduce people to water-saving devices, their role in reducing water consumption and the value of the water bill while also encouraging them to install the fixtures in their homes.

As part of the pilot project, which is supported by the USAID-funded IDARA (Instituting Water Demand Management in Jordan) project, water use will be measured both before and after the installation of the devices to determine how much has been saved, according to Zu’bi.

A water auditing study carried out by IDARA indicated that schools and mosques consume large amounts of water, ranking fourth after the tourist sector, hospitals and public sector buildings in terms of water consumption.

The same study indicates that 70 per cent of water consumption in mosques is from faucets.

There are around 6,243 mosques in Jordan, with another 772 mosques currently under construction, according to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs website, while official figures indicate that there are around 3,300 public schools across the country.

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