Retaining wall collapse in Salt leads to social media backlash

AMMAN — After a retaining wall collapsed in Salt on Tuesday, social media users are demanding that the contractor who built the wall be held accountable.

The Greater Salt Municipality said that a retaining wall collapsed and fell on six vehicles, three of which were damaged, according to the municipality’s Facebook page. 

However, no injuries were reported. 

Social media users claimed that the retaining wall was recently built, and demanded that authorities justify the collapse. 

On social media, Moayad Abadi claimed that the retaining wall was new, but built in “a non-professional way”. 

“How would a newly built retaining wall fall,” Abadi asked. 

Adel Zyadat seconded Abadi’s opinion, and said that the contractor who built the wall should be held accountable. 

“The wall was not built in a correct method; there’s no drainage and since the wall exists on a slope, it should have a tilt angle,” Zyadat claimed. 

Ahmad Sawalgah posted on Facebook that the wall is not a retaining wall, but rather, “a pile of rocks put together”.

“This is decor; it lacks construction basics, and it doesn’t have the ability to carry weight,” Sawalgah added. 

“Who will compensate vehicle owners,” Abu Yousef, a social media user posted on Facebook. 

“Whoever built the wall has to be held responsible for what happened,” wrote Amal Ghawanmeh.

The owner of one of the damaged vehicles, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Jordan Times that there were no injuries reported due to the collapse. 

The source also noted that the retaining wall did not show any signs of collapse prior to the incident. 

“The wall completely collapsed due to heavy rain at 8pm last night,” the source said. 

The retaining wall is located between a residential building and a family-owned building, the source added.

“We were not told that the retaining wall needs to be fixed when we bought the apartment,” said the source. 

According to the source, the Salt municipality never notified the owner of the residential building that the retaining wall needed maintenance and reconstruction. 

However, the retaining wall “never got fixed”, according to the source. 

As for compensating the damages incurred by vehicle owners as a result of the collapse, those with claims are still waiting for “legal measures to take place,” the source said.