Khaberni - The number of complaints submitted by citizens to the Greater Amman Municipality has increased, expressing their protest against the large accumulation of waste in some streets and neighborhoods of Amman, especially at waste container points, causing the spread of foul smells and harmful insects, particularly as we approach summer, constituting health nuisances that harm residents.
Video clips received by the municipality and reviewed by its secretary Dr. Yousuf Al-Shawarbeh showed that national workers, accompanying waste collection vehicles of the municipality to the collection points, deliberately left the containers as they were, fully filled, causing garbage to spread around them in a way that made them health and visual nuisances, according to Al-Ghad.
In light of this deliberate act, which in itself constitutes a violation of the conditions of the tasks assigned to the workers, Al-Shawarbeh instructed the legal department at the municipality to take the necessary legal actions against any worker who does not perform the container emptying tasks, or does not perform cleaning tasks from the national workers, each according to their specialization, with the penalty reaching the termination of the violator's employment service.
The Greater Amman Municipality had contracted with three cleaning companies, aimed at collecting and transporting waste and sweeping the streets, two of which started working at the beginning of last month, and the third will start in early June (July) coming.
In this context, the executive director of the Vision Amman company for waste treatment and recycling, Amjad Al-Anasweh, said that there are obstacles faced by the cleaning companies contracted with the municipality, specifically from a counter-pull current, formed by national workers who are still within the municipality's cadre.
According to Al-Anasweh, section heads responsible for monitoring national workers in the field are also deliberately pushing towards not removing waste as required in several locations, and leaving it to accumulate in a way that is harmful both healthily and visually, causing dissatisfaction among Amman's residents, pushing some to file complaints against those who commit such violations, seeking to exert pressure on the municipality; to keep cleaning services within the jurisdiction of the municipality and not under the companies' jurisdiction.
Al-Anasweh pointed out other obstacles, namely that national workers employed by the cleaning companies lack sufficient experience in cleaning tasks, in addition to the new cleaning and waste transport vehicles that the companies will rely on in their work not having arrived yet, pointing out that the work mechanism of the companies is based on an electronic regulatory system for the workers in it, and monitoring the collection and transport vehicles, and linking all of that with a control and monitoring room.
He noted that due to the deliberate accumulation of waste at its collection points in some areas, the municipality and the Vision company received a large number of complaints compared to previous periods, noting that the electronic monitoring of workers at the municipality has video clips proving that national workers deliberately remove full waste containers and leave others without any justification for what they do, indicating that the municipality has taken legal actions that reach the termination of the violators' employment services.
Al-Anasweh added that the areas that the companies took over in the transitional phase are areas: Zahran and Tariq last month, and Al-Abdali, Al-Jubaiha, and Abu Nseir this month, which constitutes 15% of the city, while the rest of the areas remain under the municipality's management, and this phase will end at the end of this year, to become the waste management of Amman 100% by the three companies, and the role of the municipality becomes supervisory over their performance.
The deputy city manager for district and environmental affairs at the municipality, Mohammad Al-Faouri, explained that the cleaning services companies are currently going through a transitional phase, noting that the municipality is monitoring the status of cleaning services in all areas of the capital, and should there be any negligence, the municipality will intervene directly, and clarified that the cleaning services companies are monitored, as well as the performance of national workers in waste collection and sweeping tasks is being tracked, confirming that violations were committed by national workers, and legal actions were taken against them, and now things are back to normal.
A national worker, who refused to reveal his name, confirmed that legal actions were taken against national workers due to their deliberate failure to remove the waste in the areas assigned to them for cleaning. The worker noted that national workers are concerned about the number of working hours followed by the cleaning companies, which differs from those in the municipality, and they also see the electronic monitoring, like surveillance cameras and the regulatory system applied by the cleaning service companies in monitoring them, will be pressing on them, as they believe. In this context, the worker pointed out that the living and economic conditions that national workers live in require them to work in more than one profession, to cover their needs and their families' needs, which increases their fears of companies' monitoring and their working hours with them, and its strictness in monitoring them, which will completely burden them, calling for their living conditions and incomes to be considered and improved.
