By Hana Namrouqa – May 19,2016

AMMAN — Residents of South Marka in the eastern part of the capital complained on Wednesday from piling trash, as the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) said people’s unhygienic practices aggravate the area’s sanitation situation.

Trash bags, old furniture and large cardboard boxes are thrown on the corners of streets and alleys in South Marka, whose municipal affairs are managed by the GAM’s Jabal Al Nasser District Directorate, according to area residents, who also complained of a shortage in the number of trash bins and street cleaners.

In remarks to The Jordan Times, Ashraf Mazraawi, a resident of the area, said that the main streets of the area are kept well cleaned, but the inner roads and alleys within residential neighbourhoods are “filthy”.

“The streets amongst the residential neighbourhoods in South Marka are turning into a health hazard. People are throwing their trash bags on the corners of the streets and between houses because there are no bins,” Mazraawi claimed.

In addition, trash is left in the streets for few days before the GAM’s sanitation workers and garbage collection trucks pass to collect them, according to Mazraawi.

Hamzeh Jameel, another resident, complained from the lack of services in east Amman in general, noting that the sanitation conditions in his neighbourhood are “very bad”.

“It is true that people should place rubbish inside the bins rather than throwing it at the feet of trash bins, but also in many cases trash falls from the bins when sanitation workers empty the bins. They leave the trash on the street and never pick it up,” Jameel told The Jordan Times.

But Jabal Al Nasser District Director Ali Khasawneh stressed that keeping the area’s streets and alleys clean is a shared responsibility involving the municipality and the residents.

“There is this culture among many people that it is okay to place trash outside their houses and that it is the job of the municipality to clean behind every household.

“This is wrong and doesnot work any where, let alone that Jabal Al Nasser is inhabited by more than 150,000 people on an area of 28.5 sq.km.,” Khasawneh told The Jordan Times.

With more than 353 streets and alleys in the area, a total of 210 municipality employees pick up 170 tonnes of trash every day, Khasawneh said.

“The area is densely populated and many of its streets are very narrow, so much so that trash bins don’t fit. We urge people to place their trash outside during the early morning, before the sanitation workers start collecting garbage from doorsteps,” Khasawneh noted.
– See more at: http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/south-marka-residents-cry-foul-over-poor%E2%80%99-garbage-collection#sthash.unE9vwU2.dpuf