The scenes of street closures in Amman during each low-pressure system are no longer an emergency or exceptional matter, but have turned into a recurrent scene met each winter with a ready-made series of excuses: heavy rain, climate change, volumes exceeding capacity.
And the truth that must be clearly stated: the problem is not in the rain, but in the management, maintenance, and preparedness.
From practical experience, it can be said that the main issue with Amman's streets is the lack of periodic maintenance and real technical supervision of stormwater drainage inlets.
These inlets are left for years without regular cleaning, and the entire workload falls on an untrained cleaning worker, without specialized technical supervision, without proper equipment, and without accountability.
Where is the real flaw?
It does not make sense for the municipality to include a large number of engineers, while most are pushed into purely administrative roles, while sensitive field operations are left without an overseeing engineer or specialist technician.
It is absurd that dealing with a stormwater drainage inlet—a vital infrastructure component—is limited to a worker and a bulldozer driver, while the rest are “deep asleep in the seventh dream” inside their offices.
When we see a cleaning worker trying to open an inlet with a piece of wood, we know for certain that equipment is unavailable, training is nonexistent, and emergency preparedness is nearly absent.
Ungated lands... a silent partner in the disaster
A large part of the problem is caused by the presence of open plots of land on the streets without fencing, which turn into a direct source of dust and debris that the rainwater sweeps into the inlets, completely blocking them within minutes.
This is not a natural matter, but a regulatory violation that must be stopped by:
Requiring owners to fence their lands facing the streets.
Holding the negligent responsible for the consequences of their negligence.
What is required? (Realistic solutions, not slogans)
Creation of a clear job title: “Technical Worker for Stormwater Drainage”
Trained, qualified, and equipped with the necessary equipment.
Mandatory monthly maintenance for the inlets and for the submersible pumps in tunnels and ensuring their actual operation, not just waiting for the winter season.
Daily monitoring according to publicly announced schedules in each area.
Numbering all inlets and linking them to official certified maps known to the worker, supervisor, and engineer.
Returning the engineer to the field, as their natural place is not just the office.
Holding the negligent accountable, not just rotating excuses.
Preparing real emergency warehouses with the necessary equipment before winter, not after flooding.
A final word from a heartbroken by years of toil in this institution
It is no longer acceptable to continue justifying street closures with water as if it were fate.
What happens is negligence, not an emergency situation.
And what floods the streets is not the rain, but the absence of serious work, and leaving sensitive files without true management.
The time has come to step out of the circle of unbelievable excuses,
and to put the safety of the people above administrative comfort,
and to return to the basics of municipal work:
Maintenance, supervision, professionalism, and accountability.
