Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) received on Tuesday 101 new refuse collection and solid waste management vehicles, financed by the EBRD and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
The EBRD investment and DFID’s financial contribution to improve solid waste management in Amman will alleviate the unprecedented strain the municipality has been facing since the arrival of thousands of Syrian refugees after 2011.
The dramatic increase in Amman’s population to almost five million far exceeds the capacity of the Ghabawi landfill, the main facility for the capital’s solid waste.
Waste transport and transfer are among GAM’s most pressing issues since the two old waste transfer stations– where waste is transferred to larger vehicles transporting it to the landfill in Ain al-Ghazal and Yarmouk have been decommissioned.
Accordingly, collection vehicles are required to travel long distances and staff needs to work additional shifts through the only available station in al-Shaer.
The launching ceremony of the delivery of the new vehicles at King Hussain Gardens was under the patronage of Amman’s Mayor Youssef Shawarbeh and in the presence of British Ambassador to Jordan Edward Oakden and EBRD associate banker Khalil Masri.
The new fleet consists of waste compactors and roll-on and roll-off waste collecting vehicles, which will work simultaneously with older vehicles.
The investment will improve the waste collection and optimize the city’s overall solid waste management system.
The new vehicles will allow GAM to hire new drivers to manage shorter shifts under improved working conditions.
The EBRD is committed to supporting GAM to improve the city’s infrastructure and to upgrade Amman’s solid waste management system, it said in a statement.
To date, the Bank has provided JOD67 million (€82 million equivalent) in loans to the city alone and by working with other donors, including the United Kingdom, the European Union, the EBRD’s Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Multi-Donor Account (SEMED MDA and TaiwanICDF, who have extended an additional JOD19 million in grants.
