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Japan 978,000 USD funding to support urban crisis prevention and strengthening climate change action in Jordan

Amman, March 2020 – The Government of Japan is contributing USD 978,709 to the UN-Habitat in Jordan for the purpose of “Strengthening the Social Stability and Resilience of Vulnerable Jordanian Communities and Syrian Refugees in Amman Against Flash Floods”.

On its part, UN-Habitat welcomed the generous contribution of USD 978,709 from the Government of Japan to strengthening government and community resilience and capacities to better manage flash floods in the city of Amman.

Flash floods became a serious problem in Jordan due to rapid unplanned urbanization, insufficient capacity of drainage systems and climate change ramifications. In 2018, flash floods claimed 35 lives and affected approximately 150,000 and resulted in severe damage to private properties and urban infrastructure. According to the Jordan National Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Strategy 2019-2022, floods have been identified as the second prioritized risk in Jordan which sheds the light on the seriousness of this problem.

According to the flood hazard map for Jordan, June 2019, the districts of Amman are among the most vulnerable to flash floods and epidemics due to high population and concentration of Syrian refugees, which exercise pressure on social services and infrastructure for water and sanitation, drainage and waste management.

The project seeks to address these urgent needs by providing a comprehensive and integrated response against flash floods through community consultations and awareness raising, training and capacity building on resilience to floods, urban planning management and construction standards, and implementation of urgent flood effect mitigation activities. It aims to strengthen government and community resilience and capacities and to better manage flash floods through the implementation of flood resilient infrastructure. The project will proactively reduce the actual or expected vulnerabilities of local communities and refugees to flash floods.

The project will benefit around 10,990 vulnerable individuals directly and 35,000 inhabitants (5,985 of which are Syrian refugees) indirectly in Amman Downtown, through the building and rehabilitating stormwater drainage facilities using environmentally friendly construction technologies. The project will also enhance the capacities of 50 GAM staff through training them on conducting assessment, emergency preparedness and planning, design and implementation of flood infrastructure. Moreover, it will enhance the capacities of 50 individuals directly and 200 indirectly, through vocational training on flood resilience construction technologies conducted. Finally, it will raise the awareness of 120 inhabitants directly and more the 100,000 indirectly through awareness raising campaigns on appropriate flood resistance construction technologies.