August 27th, 2008 - Royal Scientific Society - by Nisreen Al-Hmoud

The final workshop of the “Integrated Greywater Management Policies for Large Water Consumesr in Vulnerable Communities in Jordan” project was organized at the Royal Scientific Society RSS of Jordan on August 27th, 2008 under the patronage of her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Bint Al-Hassan, the President of RSS. The project team presented the major findings of the project including technical, social, economical, regulatory and institutional aspects, as well as training and public awareness activities.

All stakeholders involved in the project were invited to the workshop; in addition to a wide representation from the communities, key participants included IDRC / WaDImena project coordinator (Dr. Hammou Lamorani), governmental institutions working in water and wastewater (Ministry of Water and Irrigation MWI, Ministry of Health MoH, Ministry of Planning MoP, Ministry of Environment MoEnv, Ministry of Agriculture MoAgr), research Institutions (Mutah University, University of Jordan, Jordan University of Science and Technology JUST, Al-Hashemite University, National Center for Agricultural Research Extension NCARE, Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources Development and Management, INWARDAM, Environmental Monitoring and Research Central Unit EMARCU), national and Regional Non-Governmental Organizations NGOs (Jordan River Foundation, JUHUD, Mercy Corps, Jordanian Environmental Society), owners of large water consumers (Macca Mall, private dorms) and members of the Local Stakeholder Committee LSC attended the workshop.

The workshop enabled the project team to present the major findings of the project; importance of public participation, greywater treatment issues, treatment units’ performance, operation and maintenance, and direct benefits of greywater reuse. The project findings confirmed that the management of greywater in large water consumers will contribute in community development and improve the quality of life by utilizing sufficient amounts of treated greywater to the benefit of the communities located near-by the large water consumers. Moreover, the project emphasized that the LSC and the Community Based Organizations CBOs are important and effective players in greywater management. In addition, the project succeeded in increasing the level of awareness among different stakeholders and improving the know-how in greywater related issues by facilitating the dialogue over the greywater management issues and providing the opportunity for the interaction of the communities with the existing greywater management projects in Mutah University and Merwed village.

During the workshop, a 25-minutes movie was presented. The movie summarized the whole activities of the project, roles of all stakeholders, outputs and outcomes of the project.

2008-09-17