As in the case with many cities in Jordan, water scarcity in the border city of Mafraq is an ever-worsening challenge. Several factors contribute to this challenging reality including the expansion of irrigation farming, increasing industrialization and high population growth particularly due to the settlement of large numbers of Syrian refugees who fled their war-torn country. Despite local efforts to raise public awareness on the need of efficient use of water resources, tangible results are still not registered partly due to the lack of trained sanitation professionals who can offer water supply and sanitation services at the household level. In partnership with GIZ and under the auspices of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, the city of Mafraq have been engaged in addressing this challenge by participating in the implementation of the program “Technical and Vocational Education and Training for Jordanians and Syrian Refugees in the Water Sector”.  As part of the program, training courses on sanitation professional skills were provided. The benefit embedded in this program is three-fold since it contributes to raising awareness about the efficient usage of water resources at the local level while promoting employment in the water sector services among the local population that suffers from high un-employment rates. Moreover, the program promotes female employment by ensuring that 50% of the participants are women. The municipality of Mafraq has taken several measures to support the trained female sanitary professionals including their employment in municipal infrastructural projects and the establishment of the Women’s Employment Support Unit at the municipality.

1. Conducting trainings for female and male semi-skilled and skilled professionals out of whom 70 % were Jordanians and 30% from the Syrian refugee community.
2. Conducting trainings for female trainers and instructors.
3. Conduct trainings in business development and capacity development to support female plumbers.
4. Establishing Wise Women Plumber Cooperative to address challenges facing business development for women plumbers.

Female sanitary professionals who benefited from the training program have reported inspiring success stories thus playing a key role in demystifying the widespread notion of women’s incompetence to build a career in this sector. Given the opportunity and the support from their local communities, these female pioneers are creating new societal norms that are more tolerant and supportive of women’s employment in the blue-collar sectors.