GAM announces plan to renovate 70 parks across Amman in next three years

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) recently adopted a three-year plan to renovate 70 parks and gardens around the city, with the aim of offering citizens more places to play and relax, as well as safe playgrounds for their kids, according to the GAM’s spokesperson Mazen Farrajeen.

The plan comes shortly after the municipality decided to transform the shut-down Jubeiha Amusement Park into a public park last June, Farrajeen told The Jordan Times, adding “citizens need a breathing space away from the crowded and polluted city life, which is the reason behind the new public park in Jubeiha and the renovated gardens”.

The GAM’s deputy city manager for health and agriculture, Mervat Mheerat, noted “the number of citizens is disproportionate to the number of built parks and gardens, which is why the municipality is now building five new parks”.

Citizens commended the municipality’s interest in increasing green spaces, with many of them complaining about the absence of playing spaces for their children. 

Fuad Khayat, a father of four, told The Jordan Times, “it would be great if there were public spaces that are clean and properly-equipped to take our kids to on the weekends. I personally dislike taking them to closed playgrounds in malls because it’s not the same as them running around outdoors”.

“I feel sorry for my kids because they are stuck indoors all the time. I don’t allow them to play in the street because it’s dangerous, so their only time outside is at their grandparents’ backyard in Irbid,” said Randa Ahed, a mother of three, adding “the current states of parks and gardens is very poor and unappealing”.

The Ministry of Environment is also drafting a plan to open three new parks inside natural forests around the country “to offer an organised setting for people visiting the forests during the weekend to barbeque or go on family picnics”, according to their spokesperson Essa Shbool.

When it comes to environmental violations by citizens, both the municipality and the ministry stressed that the renovated and new public spaces will have “zero tolerance” towards them and public health officers will be appointed to each space to closely monitor the premises, in addition to issuing a fine against anyone carrying out acts of vandalism and littering.

 “Anyone found in violation will be fined according to the Prevention of Waste and Waste Collection Fees within the Greater Amman Municipality By-law Number 150 of 2016,” Mheerat said.

Shbool concluded: “Although we are serious about tightening the grip on environmental violations, we need the citizens to voluntarily pick up after themselves without doing it for the sake of escaping punishment.”