‘Over 4,000 littering violations recorded on Amman’s streets in July’

AMMAN — The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) registered over 4,000 littering violations during July, according to a municipality official.

The environmental violations were recorded via surveillance cameras installed in cars that tour the city’s streets, a GAM official noted.

“The cameras have recorded 4,170 environmental violations, all of which were littering, while during the first six months of this year, the cameras registered 33,260 similar violations,” the official said.

Last year, 53,956 tickets were issued for littering, while 56,000 tickets were issued in 2012, according to GAM figures.

The GAM official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said motorists and passengers are fined JD10-JD20 for littering under Article 37, Paragraph 12 of the Traffic Law.

Recording environmental violations via surveillance cameras seeks to curb pollution of the city’s streets and alter people’s behaviour, rather than collect fines from the public, he stressed.

GAM started applying the electronic monitoring system in 2007 to maintain the cleanliness of the city and address double parking on the streets.

The vehicles’ dashboards are equipped with a camera and a control board connected to a computer, where all images of the breaches are saved and then transmitted to the Central Traffic Department and the municipality, according to GAM.