It’s Time to Bring Amman Back to Life

If we write about Amman during the tenure of the former mayor, some may think and to assume so would be unjust that we are seeking revenge against him for one reason or another.

And if we confront the new mayor with the realities of Amman, he may think that we are placing an unnecessary burden on him and in this case, his assumption would not be unjust.

We are not comparing two administrations, two men, or two different periods. Rather, we will reiterate what we wrote previously during the tenure of the former mayor, who accepted criticism with great kindness, respect, and patience, without displaying any hostility or negative reaction.

This is my testimony in his favor, because he understood that the Greater Amman Municipality is a service-oriented institution and that criticizing it is entirely legitimate.

I would like to discuss Amman from several angles. Perhaps I would advise the new mayor to persuade senior officials in the state to establish an emergency committee to review all of Amman’s files.

Some of these issues may not fall directly within the municipality’s jurisdiction, but their broader impact is felt in Amman because it is the capital, with all its history and legacy.

One of the most important files facing the Greater Amman Municipality concerns improving the way people are treated at the municipality and its branches, both in face-to-face transactions and through electronic services.

It also concerns relations with people operating commercial establishments, particularly licensing and inspections, as well as ensuring that citizens receive the financial dues owed to them by the municipality.

There is also a need for municipal employees to fully understand their role within a service-oriented institution whose employees’ salaries are ultimately funded by the people of Amman.

Their job is to serve Amman’s residents and visitors. The municipality is not a traditional authority standing above the people; rather, it is a service institution funded by citizens themselves.

Other issues are related to the crisis we are witnessing, particularly during August and throughout the rest of the year.

This too requires collective action that goes beyond the Greater Amman Municipality. There are other partners who must assume their responsibilities.

This means that we are asking the mayor to look at Amman comprehensively, beyond the narrowly defined functional role of the mayor and the municipality, especially given the administrative and financial complexities involved.

The third issue is one that Jordanians have repeatedly raised their voices about, yet no one seems to be listening or paying attention.

The list is long, beginning with the thousands of vehicles that rummage through garbage containers day and night, leaving their contents scattered across the streets.

This is accompanied by declining cleanliness in many areas, a phenomenon that appears to be growing.

It is almost as if we have become victims of our own success after Arabs once described Amman as one of the cleanest cities.

Then there are the vehicles whose owners drive around shouting through loudspeakers day and night in search of scrap metal and used bedroom furniture, followed by hundreds of vegetable trucks, gas delivery vehicles, chemical-material vehicles, watermelon and melon vendors, and countless others all broadcasting their calls through loudspeakers, as if Amman had been turned into a Friday market.

Added to this are pothole-ridden streets and unplanned, poorly lit speed bumps that have damaged people’s cars.

The defects in the roads are a story of their own. It is enough to mention the absence of lane markings on many streets, with drivers cutting aggressively across one another’s paths.

Then there are construction workshops operating after sunset and during holidays, scenes of water being wasted outside homes after entrances are washed, as if all the complaints about Jordan’s water scarcity have failed to reach some residents of Amman.

And then come the problems caused by heavy rainfall in winter and blocked stormwater drainage systems.

Amman does not need cameras alone, nor should the municipality become merely an institution for collecting money through licenses and fines.

It has other responsibilities as well responsibilities the mayor certainly knows personally, given that he is a son of the municipality.

Everyone is also aware of the Greater Amman Municipality’s debt problem and the fact that many people fail to pay the financial obligations they owe.

We are not seeking to obstruct the new mayor, nor are we trying to take indirect shots at the previous administration.

Such criticism of a bygone period would neither be honorable nor appropriate. Much of what we are saying now was already said during the previous administration, while the former mayor was still in office and he accepted it.

We call on the new mayor not to confine himself to the formal boundaries of his position.

He should invite all government agencies connected to Amman’s various issues to sit together and address them collectively, so that we do not remain trapped in a cycle of shifting responsibility.

The Water Ministry tells you that this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Works. Public Works says it belongs to the Environment Ministry.

The Environment Ministry says it is the responsibility of the Finance Ministry. Finance responds that the matter falls under the municipality’s jurisdiction and eventually, someone may even tell you that the issue is the responsibility of the planet Jupiter.

Amman needs more than a municipality. Amman needs the entire state.