AMMAN — The
Higher Population Council (HPC) warned of socio-economic disparities and
spatial inequality among Jordanians, at multiple levels, and called for social
and economic gender equality.
اضافة اعلان
According to a
recent report issued by the HPC to celebrate World Habitat Day, of the entire
population of Jordan, only 30 percent can afford to buy a house; in the capital
the figure stands at 10 percent.
Meanwhile, 30–40
percent of families in Amman can only afford rentals that are below the
average.
Metri Mdanat,
secretary-general at Economic and Social Council-Jordan, told Jordan News that “the recent rapid population growth has negatively impacted the ability to
provide suitable habitat, especially for people with low income.”
He added that “the
economic modernization vision shed light on this issue and highlighted the
importance of improving the quality of life and people’s right to have
high-quality houses at affordable prices.”
He also said that
according to the vision, “incomes will grow, which would increase people’s
chances of affording houses”.
To make that even
more affordable, he suggested adopting “a plan to build smaller houses, less
than 100sq.m., at lower prices, in addition to increasing construction in
unpopulated areas outside the centers of the cities”.
The
Senate Public Services Committee last year had a discussion on how to give people with low
and middle income easier access to their right to adequate habitat.
Mustafa Hamarneh,
head of the committee, told Jordan News that the committee and the
Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDC) had discussed urban
development.
“HUDC promised to
develop a strategy, but they have not contacted us in this regard so far,” he
pointed out.
He said that new
heads of committees would be elected as soon as the next ordinary session
starts, adding that “following up on this very important issue will be on my
agenda”.
He noted that “the
good news is that 70 percent of Jordanians own their houses.”
“We need to follow a
competent, holistic approach because, as we said in the State of the Country
report, our institutions are weak and we need knowledge to strengthen them, so
that they develop executive plans and a timetable upon which we depend to
work,” he concluded.
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