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AMMAN — Baqaa Refugee Camp leaders on Sunday expressed their rejection of establishing a substitute homeland for Palestinian refugees in Jordan, stressing that refugees’ right to return to Palestine is irrevocable.

During a meeting with Senate President Abdur-Ra’uf S. Rawabdeh, leaders of the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan stressed the need to maintain national unity.

They also commended His Majesty King Abdullah’s efforts in serving the Palestinian issue and defending the legitimate rights of Palestinians to have an independent state on their national soil.

AMMAN — A man was shot in the chest on Sunday at Hittin Refugee Camp in Ruseifa, according to a source at the Ruseifa Police Department.

The man, who was shot during a fight with two other people, was sent to Prince Feisal Hospital by the Civil Defence Department, and then transferred to Jabal Al Zaytoon Hospital, where he was reported to be in critical condition.

A suspect and his partner were detained, and an investigation is under way to determine the reason behind the fight.

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Sunday approved an agreement to sell around 200 housing units in Aqaba residential areas affiliated with the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDC) to the Education Ministry.

Under the agreement, 191 apartments will be sold for JD5 million.

Also at Sunday’s meeting, the Cabinet appointed Qasem Zu’bi as director of the Department of Statistics and Hani Kurdi as the Higher Health Council’s secretary general.

In addition, the Council of Ministers approved the Turkish government’s recommendation to appoint Nael Kabariti as its honorary consul in Aqaba.

AMMAN — The Higher Council for the Affairs of Persons with Disabilities (HCD) on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Public Security Department (PSD) to provide a free audio-visual call service for deaf people.

Signing the memo with PSD Director Gen. Tawfiq Tawalbeh, HRH Prince Raad, HCD president, commended the move, which will enable deaf people to contact the PSD command and control centre in case of emergencies.

Tawalbeh said the department will cooperate with mobile companies to provide the required technical support for the service and allocate a unified hotline on all mobile networks.

Under the memo, the HCD will train PSD cadres on sign language and provide devices that support video calls.

TEXAS — Four Jordanian institutions and the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) on Sunday signed agreements to boost cooperation in education, scientific research, training and expertise exchange.

The Jordanian Nursing Council (JNC), the Jordan University of Science and Technology, the Hashemite University and the Aqaba Special Economic Zone signed the agreements in the presence of HRH Princess Muna.

The agreements are the first step towards the encouragement of initiatives, joint research, student exchange and academic cooperation between UTA and Jordanian universities.

During the ceremony, Princess Muna, who is also JNC president, received the outstanding international service award at UTA in appreciation for her efforts in improving healthcare services locally and internationally.

AMMAN — The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a nutrition programme for the treatment and prevention of moderately acute malnutrition among Syrian refugee women and children living in camps and communities in Jordan, the WFP said Sunday.

The WFP, sister UN agencies and NGOs, in cooperation with the Health Ministry and the Department of Statistics, conducted a joint nutrition survey to assess the nutrition situation and requirements of Syrian refugees living in Jordan. 

The survey found that 4 per cent of Syrian refugees under the age of five, and more than 6 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women require treatment for moderately acute malnutrition, according to a WFP statement.

“As refugee families continue to arrive in Jordan each day, the effects of living for long periods with problems getting food on the local markets in Syria are becoming clearer,” explained Jonathan Campbell, WFP’s emergency coordinator for Syrian refugees in Jordan.  

“WFP wants to make sure that we meet the refugees’ food and nutrition needs, so [the programme] is working with its partners to support the development of a healthy next generation of Syrians,” the statement quoted Campbell as saying.

The nutrition programme is organised in cooperation with Save the Children Jordan and Medair.

“Malnutrition is an underlying cause of death of children under the age of five around the world,” said Manal Wazani, the CEO of Save the Children Jordan.

“During the critical period from conception to two years of age — the first 1,000 days of life — chronic malnutrition can have irreversible effects on the mental and physical development of children,” she added.

Through Save the Children Jordan, the WFP is distributing the specialised, fortified Super Cereal Plus to all pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers and children under five in the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq Governorate, some 80km northeast of Amman.

Meanwhile, Medair, in coordination with the Jordan Health Aid Society (JHAS), is assisting refugees living in towns in the governorates of Irbid, Zarqa, Mafraq, Amman and Ramtha. 

Provision of the nutritional supplement for the urban refugees is taking place at six JHAS clinics across the country and through a mobile outreach team that visits families and delivers the nutrition product to their homes. 

Patients can recover from moderately acute malnutrition with approximately four months of treatment using Super Cereal Plus, the statement said.

“Medair has seen a great improvement in the health and nutrition of the young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. The patients are responding well and they are happy with the care they receive from our community teams and clinic workers,” said Gabriele Fänder, Medair’s regional health and nutrition adviser.

The WFP is also providing food assistance to over half-a-million Syrian refugees in Jordan through a food voucher programme that allows refugees to purchase the food items of their choice including fresh meat and produce from local Jordanian shops.

AMMAN – Zarqa Mayor Emad Momani on Saturday called on international donors to help the heavily populated city deal with the influx of Syrian refugees. 

In a phone interview with The Jordan Times, Momani said that there are over 100,000 Syrians residing in Zarqa, which has put additional burdens on the already stagnant financial resources of the municipality as well as on the services provided to residents. 

Zarqa is one of Jordan’s most populated cities, according to Momani. The city’s population is estimated at one million, out of a total population of more than seven million.

“Spending on services has gone up sharply due to the influx of Syrians and the municipality’s vehicles work three shifts to meet rising demand for services, particularly sanitation,” he added. 

Challenges 

Momani cited environmental issues as the most pressing challenge for the city of Zarqa, 23 kilometres northeast of Amman, adding that the municipality, however, was able to improve the cleanliness in the streets of the city in four months. 

“Residents have started to see a cleaner city,” he said, adding that the municipality still has more work to do to boost sanitation services there. 

Residents’ lack of confidence in municipal councils is also another challenge for the council –– elected in August last year, he noted.        

People have lost confidence in previous municipal officials not only in Zarqa but across the country, according to Momani, who said that the current council is working to bridge the gap between residents and city officials through improving the services offered to them and through meetings staged to listen to their demands. 

“People need to see better services and a cleaner city to regain their confidence,” he added. 

Momani highlighted that “poor” infrastructure is another obstacle facing the development of Zarqa, indicating that the municipality had removed pavements of many roads and will float tenders as of May worth JD8 million to pave main and side streets in the city.  

Debt burden 

The mayor pointed out that the municipality’s debt is estimated at JD18 million and that the council has carried out certain measures to improve its financial status, for example, through better tax collection procedures from residents and commercial outlets, who all owe the municipality around JD12 million in unpaid taxes and fees. 

“Revenues from the collection have already started to pick up,” he noted, adding that the municipality has plans to carry out several investment schemes to generate more revenues. 

The schemes include establishing an estate handicraft works, commercial complexes, autobus service and a green market. 

“We have plans to implement over 20 investment projects,” Momani added. 

Excess employment 

According to the mayor, the number of employees at Zarqa Municipality is around 4,200. Most of the city’s budget goes to pay their salaries. 

The current municipal council has “inherited” this large number of workers and cannot lay off any of them, he said. 

The priority is to boost their productivity by telling them that serving the people is the criterion to keep their jobs, Momani added. 

He said that he and his electoral list won last year’s election not through tribal coalitions but instead through an election programme based on enhancing services in Zarqa that gained the confidence of the majority of voters. 

However, he and the municipal council still face some problems due to “campaigns” launched by rivals, “who believe they own the city”. 

AMMAN — The University of Jordan (UJ) has so far received more than 100 applications from candidates for the student union elections slated for March 27, a university official said on Sunday.

UJ Vice President Azmi Mahaftha, who heads the elections higher committee, said more than 100 applications were submitted on the first day of registration, which started on Sunday — for the 84 seats and nine lists — and will continue until Tuesday, March 11.

Under the university’s regulations, the union includes one seat allocated to each department for every 300 students, plus nine seats elected through a university-wide proportional list system.

The system allows students to cast one vote for an individual candidate from their department and another for a list at the university level, which any group with at least seven students can form.

Last year, the council of deans decided to postpone student union elections, which were scheduled to take place in December, until March this year.

One of the main reasons for the postponement of the elections was the situation in some of the country’s universities, where violent acts were reported. “We want to avoid any potential chaos,” UJ president Ekhleif Tarawneh said at the time.

“We want first-year students to be involved in the electoral process. Thus, we want to give them more time before conducting the elections,” Tarawneh added.

According to UJ, there are 11,000 first-year students, constituting 27 per cent of the total student body.

Meanwhile, Mahaftha said the university had modified one article of the poll regulations, under which any list running for the elections will be excluded if the ratio of its voters is less than 4 per cent of the total number of votes for all running lists.

At a press conference to announce arrangements for the elections, Mahaftha said only students will be allowed to enter the campus on the day of the polls.

He added that candidates’ campaigns will start on March 20 and continue until March 26.

AMMAN — Investigations are under way to find out how three French tourists fell to their deaths on Saturday while mountain climbing in Wadi Rum, according to the French embassy.

“We are still trying to know more details because the incident happened only yesterday,” a source at the French embassy told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

A 32-year-old man and two women, aged 35 and 40, plunged 200 metres while climbing a 1,500-metre high mountain in the Um Rumaileh area in Wadi Rum, some 300 kilometres southwest of the capital.

“The tourists arrived from France on Thursday as part of a group,” the source said, underscoring that the three tourists were accompanied by a French guide during the climbing expedition, contrary to earlier reports that said the tourists arrived in Jordan individually and went on the climbing expedition without a guide.

The incident took place around 11:30am on Saturday, a Civil Defence Department officer who participated in the rescue mission said, noting that the three tourists were found on a cliff.

The team of paramedics faced a hard time reaching the site of the accident because of the mountainous terrain, the officer told The Jordan Times on Saturday, adding that the three tourists were transported on stretchers for 300 metres before reaching the ambulance.

“As an embassy, we have fully mobilised and took all the normal measures in cooperation with the Jordanian authorities, who were very helpful. We have informed the families of the tourists and we are helping the rest of the group, who are in shock,” the source said.

Asked whether the bodies of the three tourists have been transported to France and whether the tourists belonged to the same family, the embassy official declined to comment “to protect the privacy of the families of the tourists”.

The CDD transported the bodies of the victims to the Wadi Rum Health Centre for a forensic examination and then transferred them to Prince Hashem Military Hospital in Aqaba, located 58 kilometres south of Wadi Rum. They were flown to Amman late Saturday.

AMMAN — More than 25 MPs on Sunday submitted a petition to the Lower House Permanent Office seeking amendments to the Traffic Law to double penalties for traffic violations.

They said they want to end “widespread dangerous driving habits”, and the manipulation in traffic accidents to exploit insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, one week after he raised the case under the Dome, MP Zakariya Sheikh (Islamic Centrist Party list) informed the prosecutor general to take the necessary measures to investigate alleged corruption at the Jordan Water Company (Miyahuna).

Last week, Sheikh criticised the chairman of the state-owned Miyahuna Company, which manages the capital’s water and sewage.

He charged that a tender to paint the insides of 13 water tankers was mismanaged, as the company that implemented the project did not meet the requirements set by the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organisation.

Sheikh said the paint may have poisoned the water that citizens have already consumed.

Minster of Water Hazem Nasser told the deputy that this case has been under investigation and that most of the information cited by the MP was inaccurate.

Prior to starting deliberations over the draft amendments to the Agriculture Law, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh expressed the House’s support for women in Jordan, congratulating them on the occasion of International Women’s Day, which is observed on March 8.

Earlier in the day, Tarawneh gave roses to female MPs.

“We should support women as partners,” he said at the beginning of the session on Sunday. “We support women to continue their struggle to achieve their aspirations and demands.”

Following Tarawneh’s remarks, MP Wafa Bani Mustafa (Jerash, 4th District), who was recently appointed as National Centre for Human Rights board member, also congratulated women on the occasion.

“I would also like to announce that as Arab female parliamentarians, we came together from various Arab countries and decided to establish the Arab Female Parliamentarians Network to end violence against women, with Jordan as the host country for this network,” she said.

“This network will work towards ending violence against women and supporting all NGOs and civil society organisations working for the same goal,” Bani Mustafa added.