Restoring the Zarqa – Respecting Our Rivers ‘When you look down
the Zarqa River at Janna’a Park it is hard to imagine that 30
years ago this area was green and fertile’, said Eng.Mohammad Al
Zawahra from Zarqa Municipality. ‘People would swim in clear
water pools, fish, swam in the river, and we had flowing water
throughout the year’. The situation now is very different. It is
now a seriously polluted infrequently flowing stream, reduced to
a trickle of black liquid and solid waste running through urban
and rural areas. The water has become a danger to the health of
people and livestock living nearby. Irrigation with water from
the river creates a serious risk of food contamination,
threatening valuable agricultural industries. Habitat for birds,
fish and other biodiversity along the river has been destroyed.
In a complex circle on interconnectivity, many development
impacts are destroying the river and with it the ecosystem
services it provides. For decades the Zarqa River has been
heavily polluted by untrea