Saturday, The Royal Scientific Society (RSS) and the United Nations Human Settlements Program have signed a cooperation agreement to implement a joint research project to detect coronavirus in treated wastewater in the Kingdom.

According to a press release issued by the RSS, the agreement comes at the initiative of the Global Partnership of Water Operators Alliance program of the UN, as there is a renewed interest in monitoring treated wastewater, specifically how to monitor sewage systems for the presence of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens.

The statement added that the project will last for 6 months to track the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater from the source points at the King Abdullah University Hospital in Irbid to the wastewater treatment plant of the Jordan University of Science and Technology.

The project proposes a sustainable early warning system by tracking and monitoring the virus in the wastewater of the Azraq refugee camps and Jerash for Palestinian refugees, given that they are more vulnerable to the outbreak of the pandemic due to overcrowding, in addition to the low financial ability to conduct a virus detection tests (PCR) when needed.

The Water, Environment, Safety and Biosecurity Centers of the Royal Scientific Society are responsible for implementing the project, which seeks to complete efforts to monitor and evaluate treated wastewater throughout Jordan.

In its statement, the RSS expected that the residents of the two targeted camps, which include 66,874,000, of whom 36,874,874 are Syrian refugees in Azraq camp, and 30,000 Palestinian refugees in Jerash camp, in addition to the scientific community and workers in sewage treatment plants, will benefit from the project.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the year 2020, Jordan is the second largest country hosting refugees in relation to the population, with about 83 percent of them are concentrated in cities, and the remaining percentage in refugee camps, 10 percent of which are Palestinian.

The RSS is considered one of the largest scientific centers concerned with applied scientific research, providing scientific advice and technical services in Jordan. It is also a leading center at the local and regional level in the fields of science and technology.

The Global Water Operators Partnership Alliance program, hosted by the United Nations Human Settlements Program, helps water operators provide high-quality services to all. The program is an international network established in 2009 to support water operators through partnerships, cooperation and exchange of experiences between water operators around the world.