Rising number of visitors to Ajloun warrants increased awareness of clean environment

AMMAN — Experts in Ajloun Governorate recently urged relevant stakeholders to intensify cleaning campaigns at tourist attractions and picnic sites that typically attract a considerable amount of visitors.

“The governorate receives large numbers of hikers every summer, especially local visitors, which requires the concerned authorities to intensify cleaning campaigns at tourist and archaeological sites, as well as on hiking trails, to preserve their beautiful features”, Jordanian Environment Society member Nazmiyeh Al Zaghoul said in a recent press statement.

Residents of Ajloun agreed, and also called for measures to be ramped up.

“Each weekend we receive many visitors. Sometimes they leave trash behind them and sometimes the coal they use for barbecuing causes fires, “ Ziad Momani, a resident of the area, told The Jordan Times.

“It’s our responsibility — all of us — to protect the environment and our natural treasures,” he added.

A member of the Volunteer and Social Work Coordination Committee in Ajloun, Jaafar Okasha, pointed out the importance of permanently increasing cleaning campaigns at tourist sites, especially around the holidays.

Okasha also called for holding lectures, seminars and workshops that educate the public on the importance of the cleanliness and preservation of tourist attractions.

Director of Tourism in Ajloun Muhammad Al Deek said in a statement that the Ministry of Tourism strives to keep tourist and archaeological sites and hiking sites clean. 

As Ajloun Governorate is a tourist destination frequented by tourists from inside and outside the Kingdom throughout the year, the Ministries of Tourism and Environment work together to implement several clean-up campaigns in the area, Deek said.

For his part, the director of Environment in Ajloun Governorate, Mishaal Al Fawaz, said that national cleaning campaigns are “constantly” being implemented to clean the governorate’s forests and maintain the cleanliness of tourist and archaeological sites.