From the culturally rich and historic streets
of
Jabal Amman to the modern mega malls of Abdali and Abdoun, Amman is a
wonderfully diverse and cosmopolitan city, and it is indisputably the heart of
our country.
اضافة اعلان
That being said, both public and private
institutions have put too much emphasis on this fact, which practically forces
Jordanians from smaller provincial towns to migrate to Amman for a greater
sense of opportunity.
The population of the city and its metropolis
has increased from almost 900,000 in 1979, to 1.864 million in 1999, and today
it sits at over four million.
Amman has grown more quickly than it can manage,
with a whopping rate of almost 2,400 per sq.km.
The city could not make the
necessary adjustments in time to accommodate a large mix of economic migrants
and refugees from war-torn neighboring countries, resulting in an
overwhelmingly congested city.
Residents of Amman will testify that the roads
barely fit the indescribable amount of cars that pass through them.
Yara
Shahzadeh, an Amman-born interpreter who has lived there for the majority of
her life has told me that it is very difficult to drive in the city and this
has translated to the city’s actual living spaces as well.
“Villas and homes used to be common, you would
never see apartment buildings before.
But I guess this happens with urban
expansion,” Shahzadeh said. Areas to walk and bike in are scarce, and making
the necessary space for more public transport is quite the challenge (although
the “Fast Bus” is a slight improvement in this regard).
In this article, I
wanted to look at the reasons for Amman’s
overcrowding and how those problems
could possibly be fixed.
For one, Jordan’s private sector is almost
completely based in Amman. In a list of Jordan’s 26 most prominent companies,
only four were based outside of Amman, an extremely disproportionate statistic
given that 42 percent of Jordan’s population lives in and around the capital.
The newest one of these companies was founded
in 1985, indicating that the exclusive focus on Amman has substantially
increased in the last few decades.
Understandably, it would be difficult for
private companies to set themselves up in smaller cities, but many larger
municipalities in Jordan do not experience much private sector growth.
For example, Irbid has almost 1 million people
living there, yet none of the 26 companies are based there.
This fact spurs
Jordanians who want to “make it big” to move to the capital. The underlying
reason for this is the disparity of funding between Amman and other cities in
Jordan.
In 2016, the World Bank found that JD430 million were allocated to the Greater
Amman Municipality. The following year, the municipal government of Zarqa, the
third largest city in Jordan, received a mere JD28 million in funding, despite
the fact that 635,160 people were there as of the last census.
Thus, the
government must find a way to allocate and bring revenue into other parts of
Jordan, lest its capital becomes too packed and unlivable.
Investing outside the capital
Although Jordan is a resource-poor nation,
various solutions can spread opportunity, and in turn, people, into other
governorates.
Maan, often overlooked as a small and isolated desert town, could
be converted into a bustling metropolis if its governorate’s solar power was
utilized.
Maan Governorate has a rate of solar capability that is almost
unmatched by any other part of the country, as it is located in an area with
near constant sunlight.
Even though Maan has the capability to provide
solar energy for the entire region, it only provides around 5 percent of
Jordan’s electrical energy.
If the government engages in the mass construction
of solar plants there, many workers might be attracted to help build the
project, with planners, administrators, and engineers moving in to supervise.
Such an endeavor could bring human and intellectual
capital to the second lowest developed region in Jordan.
The
job growth there will mean it would no longer be necessary for Maanis seeking
opportunities to go to Amman, and it could also attract people out of Amman,
allowing for a more spacious city.
The northern governorates of Jordan, namely
Irbid, Ajloun, Jerash, and Balqa are known nationwide for their spectacular and
green scenery, but little has been done to promote this specific aspect of that
region on a global scale.
Should Jordan’s tourism board promote the beautiful
mountains of the north to private companies, they could build resorts and
infrastructure geared towards tourists, in turn providing job opportunities,
financial growth, and a reason for residents in the area’s smaller towns to
stay.
This is similar to the mountain retreats that
exist in much of Europe or closer to home in Trabzon, Turkey, now an extremely
popular destination.
The same phenomenon of reverse migration that is possible
in Maan could occur there as more expansion requires more people.
A subway wouldn’t fix Amman
To reduce the amount of congestion in Amman,
it is necessary to come up with an efficient method of public transportation.
Although the new “Fast Bus” is a start, it doesn’t make a terribly large amount
of change.
For one, although there would be less vehicles on the road, there
still would be vehicles on the road, and for Amman’s roads to clear up, a
substantially large amount of people need to take a non-vehicular means of
transport.
One might think a metro or subway system would
solve this issue at first, but this seems unlikely to work in Amman’s case.
That is due to the fact that a city needs to be built around a subway system,
rather than the other way around.
For instance, New York City possesses one of
the longest subway systems in the world, built in 1904.
The very concept of a
subway is synonymous with the city and a whopping 42 percent of all residents
use the train as their main method of commuting.
Because of how long ago it was
built, much of New York City was built with the subway in mind, making it an
effective and convenient way of getting where one needs to be.
On the other hand, Cairo, another congested
Middle Eastern capital, built a metro system in 1988 and while it is fairly
expansive, most of the city was built before the metro was, meaning it is not
as advantageous as New York’s system.
This is probably why only 2 percent of those
living in Cairo actually use the metro as their main means of transportation.
Amman is already quite large, so a metro
system would not really do much to clear up the city’s roads.
Instead, an
interesting solution that has been implemented in much of Latin America might do
the trick.
Medellin, Colombia, had the idea of making a metro cable its main means of
transport. With stops around the city, it is cost-efficient,
climate-friendly, and has significantly reduced congestion.
It has also made distant suburbs of the city
more accessible and prosperous. This could have the effect of spreading people
and opportunities away from the city center.
The system has become popular that
it has been implemented in other Latin American cities, like Santo Domingo in
the Dominican Republic. Should Amman follow this example, the city and its
people might benefit immensely.
In conclusion, in order to make Amman a city
where people can once again move freely, solutions must be implemented within
the city, as well as in other parts of Jordan in order to stem rapid growth.
Should these suggestions be followed, not only might Amman be a much more comfortable
place to live in, but the other, often neglected areas of Jordan could see a
large amount of growth and prosperity come their way.
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Opinion and Analysis