IRBID — Last week, the Ministry
of Environment announced higher penalties for littering in public spaces and
institutions, under new legislative amendments seeking to curb the phenomenon,
which has become “a danger to the Jordanian
environment and society,” according
to one local official.
اضافة اعلان
The new fines are an activation
of the Waste Management Framework Law No. 16 of 2020, which was ratified and
published in the Official Gazette six months earlier, and came into effect last
week.
Under the new law, according to
media advisor to the minister of environment and the official spokesperson for
the ministry, Ahmed Obeidat, the minimum penalty for littering has been raised
from a fine of JD20 to JD50, while the maximum punishment was raised to up to
JD1,000.
The penalty can also include a
prison sentence ranging from one week to one month, and double the fine for
repeat offenders.
Obeidat told
Jordan News that
the new harsher penalty was imposed due to “the large number of violations
committed by citizens.”
"I will not use numbers
and percentages to talk about the size of the violations, but the number was
very large in previous periods,” the spokesperson said.
"This problem is no longer
a simple matter, and it has become a danger to the Jordanian environment and
the Jordanian society in general, and to the tourist areas as well, as it
reflects negative phenomenon and an uncivilized (image) for Jordan and
Jordanians,” Obeidat added.
"The Ministry of
Environment, in its capacity as a supervisory and inspection body, focused on
raising awareness and modifying the behavior of some citizens who commit these
violations, and did not focus only on punishment.
However, the repetition of
these violations and the increase in their number made us turn to this option
to modify (such behavior), and this step, I believe, was directed towards the
right direction in order to be a deterrent to all those who harm the
environment and Jordan in general,” Obeidat told
Jordan News.
According to the ministry
official, the ministry launched a national plan for environmental awareness
about a year and a half ago, but it was hampered by the
COVID-19 pandemic. As
part of the national plan, and in conjunction with the activation of the new
penalties, the ministry launched a campaign last week to clean public places
and roads across the Kingdom.
Ahmed Manna', a resident of
Ramtha, told
Jordan News that in the past, he used to view financial penalties
as “an indirect means of theft.”
“But after I saw the increase
in the number of violations in my area, it became a disservice to the people of
the area.
From here, I found that the solution of stiffening the penalties and
imprisonment is the most appropriate solution to mitigate this uncivilized
behavior," Manna’ added.
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