RASOUN, Jordan — A mysterious wave of indoor condensation has affected 38 homes in this hill town since 6 October, with residents reporting water beads forming on ceilings and walls around 04:26. The local governorate office says it is the largest simultaneous event of its kind in its records; neighbouring houses have stayed dry.
The affected homes are scattered across Rasoun, in Ajloun governorate, but all connect to a covered limestone water channel built generations ago by one extended family. Technicians have found no burst pipes, and the weather station measured no rain during several reported episodes. The cause remains unknown.
Water appears before dawn
Clara Valdivia, whose family lives in one of the affected homes, said she first noticed drops falling onto a table beside her kitchen. “We checked the roof, the pipes, everything. It starts quietly, and then the room is wet,” she said. Her family has moved bedding out of one room and put bowls beneath a ceiling seam.
The governorate office says residents have collected water in 12 homes, with the greatest measured amount equivalent to 1.8 millimetres (0.07 inches) of rainfall over a bedroom floor. Officials have recorded no structural damage. Seven households are temporarily avoiding one room each while engineers inspect walls and ceilings.
Phumzile Van Schalkwyk, a hydrologist advising the office, said early samples contained mineral traces consistent with water moving through limestone, but not enough to identify a source. Moisture sensors placed in four homes showed humidity rising before the droplets appeared. “The water is arriving from somewhere behind the walls, not through the roof,” she said.
The channel beneath the houses
The old channel once carried spring water into cisterns, a common way of storing water in Jordan’s rural highlands. Residents say the 38 homes are linked to its branches, but several newer houses above the same route have reported no moisture. Engineers have not yet found a single point where the water enters the buildings.
Tijn van Kasteelen, a geophysicist helping map the route, said small tremors and changes in air pressure were being tested as possible triggers. Instruments recorded no earthquake during the first week of reports. “We can confirm the timing and the shared route. We cannot yet explain the mechanism,” he said.
The town’s first survey counted 38 affected homes out of 214 checked, and found that each belonged to descendants of the family that built or maintained part of the channel. Officials said there was no sign of deliberate interference and cautioned that the family connection may simply reflect who inherited homes along the old route.
The governorate has set aside 18,000 Jordanian dinars (about €23,000) for cameras, moisture probes and a small inspection robot to enter sections too narrow for people. The equipment is due to arrive next week. Residents have also been asked to keep dated photographs and measurements rather than repaint damp patches before checks are complete.
The nightly reports continued on Thursday, though only 21 households said droplets appeared. Engineers plan to compare water samples from the homes with the nearby spring and to map the channel’s sealed branches. Until then, residents in Rasoun are watching their ceilings at dawn for a phenomenon that has no recorded local precedent.
