GAM teams conducting field visits to urge residents to clean rooftops

AMMAN — Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) teams have conducted field visits 120 buildings since the beginning of August to check the cleanliness of their rooftops, a GAM official said on Monday. 

Raed Haddadin, director of the building control department at GAM, said the field visits are part of the department’s “ongoing” campaign that aims at encouraging the capital’s residents to clean their rooftops.  

“We are also focusing on downtown Amman because it is densely populated,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

Haddadin said the outcomes of the campaign were successful, as it managed to spread awareness among community members. 

“Some residents were not even aware that their rooftops were not clean because they mainly rely on the janitor to clean it up and rarely go up there,” he added, noting that shop owners also expressed their surprise over the condition of their buildings’ rooftops. 

When the campaign was launched in June, Haddadin said residents would be given until the end of the holy month of Ramadan, after which GAM would “issue warnings against those who do not abide by the instructions”, and send a team to clean the rooftop, with the owner covering the expenses.

He noted that the area near the Amman Civil Airport in Marka was added to the campaign last Wednesday as the rooftops there need to be cleaned.

The municipality official said the campaign also included clearing 300 abandoned cars from the industrial areas in Wadi Al Seer and Qweismeh. 

The campaign, he noted, was suspended for a while during the heatwave that hit the Kingdom earlier this month in order to ensure the safety of GAM teams.