Jofeh residents blame authorities' 'negligence' for building collapse

AMMAN — Families who evacuated the three buildings that collapsed in east Amman’s Jofeh area over the weekend are blaming the concerned authorities for their “negligence” in dealing with the “damaged” sewage network in the neighbourhood.

Authorities were initially notified last Thursday that part of a residential building in Jabal Al Jofeh had collapsed. 

Reports said a young engineer from the area saw the cracks in one building and called the Civil Defence Department (CDD), after which he managed to convince the residents to evacuate before the first building collapsed. 

The CDD took care of evacuating hundreds from the surrounding buildings, with the help of police and social development officials.

The concerned agencies evacuated dozens of families consisting of more than 380 individuals and provided them with alternative accommodation upon directives by His Majesty King Abdullah. 

While at the site, the rescue units had noticed that the surrounding buildings had “deep” cracks, prompting them to evacuate people from  two buildings adjacent to the one that collapsed. 

The two evacuated buildings collapsed on Friday morning. 

Among those who evacuated is the family of Nasser Al Hajj, who has been suffering from the consequences of the “ruined” sewage network since 2006. 

“The apartment I live in is located in the ground floor. The building is surrounded by five manholes that have been left without maintenance from the 1980s,” he told The Jordan Times on Sunday, adding that “every now and then, a team used to come to empty the manholes without renovation”. 

“And every time, things go back to the way they were soon enough,” said Hajj, whose family owns the building that collapsed first.

Bassam Alqam, who lived in another building that collapsed Friday, echoed the same sentiments.

He evacuated the apartment along with his family and is now residing in a furnished apartment. 

“Our complaints used to fall on deaf ears,” noted Yaqoub Shanaa, who lives in a nearby building in Jofeh.

While the building he resides in has “not collapsed yet”, people are “terrified over this possibility”.

“We know it is a matter of time. The manholes surrounding the entire neighbourhood are not safe, and you can see the cracks in the buildings,” Shanaa said. 

Arbitrary construction and cesspools are the primary causes of the collapse of three buildings in Amman’s Jofeh area, the Jordan National Building Council maintained on Saturday, an account challenged by residents. 

“The old buildings, which date back to the 1980s, were unable to tolerate the arbitrary construction of additional storeys throughout the years. The cesspools in the area made the situation even worse,” Public Works and Housing Minister Sami Halaseh told The Jordan Times

King Abdullah on Thursday issued directives to Minister of Social Development Wajih Azaizeh and Health Minister Mahmoud Sheyyab to check on the site. 

A technical committee of members from the social development and public works ministries, the Public Security Department (PSD), the CDD and the Greater Amman Municipality was formed by Interior Minister, Ghaleb Zu’bi to investigate incident, while taking immediate action to ensure the safety of citizens.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported that Prime Minister Hani Mulki called Zu’bi as he was chairing the meeting and directed the officials to carry out a scan of all areas in Amman to detect any similar threat, as a step to conduct such a probe nation-wide.

The council said the collapsed buildings were old and that additional storeys had been arbitrarily added over the years, according to Halaseh, who added that the total number of buildings evacuated in the area reached 17.