AMMAN — Dozens of farmers from the
Azraq and the
Eastern Badia regions said they were prevented from holding a sit-in in front
of the Prime Ministry Wednesday morning to protest the Ministry of Water and
Irrigation’s confiscation of their movable and immovable properties, Amman Net
reported.
اضافة اعلان
They then moved
their sit-in to the gates of Parliament, and told reporters that they were
punished for using artesian wells that were dug decades ago and of which the
ministry was aware.
They said that
they used to pay for the well water used to irrigate their lands, but the
ministry raised water prices by as much as 20 times, without warning, rendering
them unable to pay for the water anymore. As a result, many were forced to
abandon their farms, while others continued farming, despite the high cost,
because they had no other means of earning a living for themselves and their
families.
In a joint
statement, the farmers claimed that the
Water Ministry “confiscated our movable
and immovable properties and even our pensions and farming tools.”
The Water Ministry “confiscated our movable and immovable properties and even our pensions and farming tools.”
They also said
that the ministry would calculate water consumption based on estimates rather
than facts, adding that no water meters were used.
According to the
statement, farmers decided to protest the ministry’s actions; the latter formed
a committee that found major violations committed by the ministry’s employees
and approved a 75 percent discount on water prices.
The ministry,
however, did not approve the discount and demanded that all outstanding
payments be made, according to the statement.
“This measure
will force the population of these areas to leave, ... increase poverty and
harm social stability, especially since thousands of women are working on these
farms without any other means of earning a living except agriculture,” said the
statement.
Money owed, the
statement said, adds up to hundreds of thousands of dinars, in some cases
millions, and most of the farmers are poor and cannot pay even the smallest
amount of these dues, so they are forced to leave their homes and their farms
will be sold at public auctions.
A ministry
source told Jordan News that “the farmers are breaking the law by operating
wells that do not have water meters”.
He said that the
“lack of water meters at these unlicensed wells may raise the price of water
they use”, stressing that these people want to use the land and water of the
state and insist on breaking the law, and therefore we cannot provide
assistance to them”.
“In 2004, the ministry
gave farmers who own such wells the opportunity rectify their situation, but
they did not cooperate with the ministry in this regard,” the source noted.
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