AMMAN: Um Rakan will never forget the day she managed to fix a water leak at her house and show her family how “capable” she was. The young mother said she felt an “overwhelming” sense of victory when repairing the leaking tap, especially since her husband was unable to do so.
The Bani Kenanah resident noted that she could not have possibly mastered such skills without receiving the appropriate training under the Improved Water Resources Security for Low Income Rural and Urban Communities (WRAP) project. Um Rakan is among tens of women deemed as “wise women” whose mission is to spread good water conservation practices in their respective communities.
For farmer Mazen Abu Ghazal, the skills he received under the training have “changed his farming techniques for good”. “I grow pomegranate on a 10-dunum plot of land and used to believe, like my father and grandfather before him, that the more I water the pomegranate tree, the more fruit it gives us,” he said on Wednesday during a ceremony to highlight the achievements of the project.
Thanks to the training, implemented by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), Abu Ghazal noted that he “knows better now”. Under the EU-funded scheme, water networks in five areas have been rehabilitated, which contributed to providing drinking water to 500 families and increasing water supply to more than 3,000 households, improving the lives of around 20,000 individuals. In addition, three groups of “wise women” were formed who have so far managed to raise the awareness of 750 women in local communities and 2,000 students on the best usage of water.
