Thirteen factories and vocational workshops were shut down in October for health and environmental violations, according to a Ministry of Environment report.
In addition, 5,017 tickets and warnings were issued last month to industries and vocational workshops for emitting excessive amounts of fumes and disposing industrial waste in undesignated areas, as well as for illegal logging and raising livestock in residential areas.
“A total of 1,376 industries and workshops were issued warnings, mostly located in north and south Amman, while around 1,307 received warnings for operating without a licence and 49 for dumping and burning waste,” Adnan Zawahreh, director of the ministry’s inspection and law enforcement department, said yesterday.
Twelve violations, reported by the Ministry of Environment and the Rangers, were registered for hunting wild animals and 26 for raising livestock and poultry within residential areas, mainly in Ruseifa in Zarqa Governorate.
Meanwhile, four cases of illegal logging were registered in Ajloun Governorate, where pine and oak forests cover the majority of the terrain.
Under environmental regulations, those who cut down forest trees without a licence face a three-month prison term, and a JD100 fine for each tree chopped down from state-owned land and JD50 for one from private land. In addition, their equipment is confiscated.
Zawahreh noted that the Rangers registered 1,940 violations last month as part of their ongoing campaign to test vehicle emissions.
Ministry regulations stipulate that motorists found driving vehicles that emit excessive amounts of exhaust fumes will have their drivers licences revoked. Authorities are also obliged to seize the vehicle and fine the motorist JD30-JD60.
Also last month, authorities seized 31 vehicles loaded with 298 tonnes of untreated fertilisers in the Jordan Valley as part of an ongoing crackdown on the use of the substance, which attracts domestic flies due to its high percentage of humidity. The fertilisers were confiscated and sent to an organic fertiliser plant in Deir Alla, according to Zawahreh.
Jordan Times