by Hana Namrouqa – May 14,2017

Three Water Authority of Jordan employees were hospitalised on Sunday when they were shot at and assaulted after preventing the drilling of an illegal water well in the northern Ramtha district in Irbid Governorate, according to a government official (Photo courtesy of Water Authority of Jordan)

AMMAN — Three Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) employees were hospitalised on Sunday when they were shot at and assaulted after preventing the drilling of an illegal water well in the northern Ramtha district in Irbid Governorate, according to a government official.

A government official at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, who requested to remain anonymous, said that the illegal drilling was taking place in the grounds of a “lavish palace belonging to an influential person in Ramtha,” 90km north of Amman.

WAJ employees, escorted by security forces, last week tried to enter the property to stop the drilling, confiscate the drilling rig and legally document the violation, but they were refused entry, the official said.

On Sunday morning, WAJ employees, accompanied by Ramtha’s prosecutor general and members of the gendarmerie and the Public Security Department, returned to the property as part of a larger mission , the official said.

“Outlaws and the owners of illegal drilling rigs gathered at the site, where members of the mission were shot at and attacked with rocks,” according to the official, who said that the campaign later retreated to a nearby location, from which it fired tear gas.

“The force returned to the site again and raided the location, where it found a bulldozer and signs of the drilling of a well… The employees were verbally abused and threatened with weapons to prevent them from completing their job,” the official said.

As WAJ employees were driving away from the location, a silver car carrying four armed men followed them and rammed into the WAJ vehicle, according to the official, who added that three WAJ employees were mildly injured , while the vehicle was damaged and its window smashed.

“The drilling rig was not confiscated because it was removed before the mission raided the palace. The armed men who rammed into the authority’s vehicle also escaped,” said the official, who did not say if legal action will be taken against the owner of the land where the illegal drilling took place.

WAJ employees have been verbally and physically abused several times over the past few years, as the ministry presses ahead with its crackdown on violations on water sources and networks.

Drilling wells in any part of the country has been prohibited since 1997 to protect underground water reserves from salinity and continued depletion.

As the national crackdown on water violations enters its fourth year, authorities stopped over 30,000 violations on water mains and resources. The current campaign, started by the ministry in the summer of 2013, has seen the retrieval of millions of cubic metres of stolen water and the prevention of the drilling of illegal wells.

Authorities sealed 890 illegal wells and seized and confiscated 51 drilling rigs.

http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/water-authority-employees-shot-car-rammed-illegal-drilling-well-site