National litter clean-up day to sweep Kingdom next week

AMMAN — Sixty locations across the Kingdom will be cleaned up next week in a one-day national campaign to remove litter, a government official announced on Thursday.

Nine government agencies will participate in the clean-up campaign, with the aim of creating better awareness and a greater sense of responsibility among people regarding the need to stop littering, the official said.

The Ministry of Environment is organising the event on April 8, in cooperation with the Greater Amman Municipality and the ministries of interior, municipal affairs, health, public works and housing, tourism and antiquities, and agriculture and education, according to the environment ministry’s spokesperson Isa Shboul  

“The national campaign will target all of the governorates; parks, main streets, touristic sites, forests, and nature reserves will be cleaned on that day,” Shboul told The Jordan Times.

The initiative is called “our environment is our life”, he said, noting that the ministry seeks to encourage public participation in the upcoming event.

“The national clean-up day aims to highlight the importance of protecting the environment and leaving picnicking and tourists’ sites free from litter,” the official noted.

The ministry launched a similar campaign in August last year, when municipalities, civil societies and schools participated in cleaning up public areas and raising environmental awareness.

Forests are a major attraction for visitors during summer, particularly on weekends, which results in rubbish piling up at the sites and occasional fires starting due to improper and negligent use of barbeques, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.