'13% drop registered in littering violations in Amman'

AMMAN — Mobile surveillance cameras roaming the capital's streets registered a 13 per cent drop in the number of littering violations this year compared to 2014, a municipality official said on Wednesday.

"The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) registered during this year 49,000 littering violations, while the number stood at 56,306 environmental violations during the past year," head of GAM’s electronic monitoring department, Ali Marafi, told The Jordan Times.

Teams from GAM record the environmental violations via surveillance cameras installed in cars that tour the city’s streets, Marafi said, noting that they are distributed every morning to cover Amman's 22 districts.

"Applying the electronic monitoring system seeks to alter people’s environmental behaviour, reduce violations and raise awareness of the need to keep the city clean. The fact that the number of littering violations has dropped is a sign that people are responding," he noted.

GAM started applying the electronic monitoring system in 2007 to maintain the cleanliness of the city and address double parking on the streets. 

The vehicles’ dashboards are equipped with a camera and a control board connected to a computer, where all images of the breaches are saved then transmitted to the Central Traffic Department and the municipality, according to GAM.

Motorists and passengers are fined JD20 for littering, according to GAM.

Marafi noted that a campaign that was launched in 2012 to end littering on Amman’s streets and discourage drivers and motorists from throwing trash from the windows of their vehicles is still ongoing.

Under the “Amman Baituna” (Amman is our home) campaign, GAM is giving out trash bags that are leak-proof and made of recyclable materials. Messages urging people to stop littering are printed on the bag, as well as the fine for littering under the law.

The bags are handed out at GAM’s departments, intersections and congested traffic lights, in addition to parks and bus stations.

"A new phase of the campaign was launched two weeks ago, under which a total of 100,000 bags are being distributed to motorists." Marafi highlighted.