Overrides and robberies in the hazardous waste dump (Swaqa). Protecting the Ministry of Environment?
The management of hazardous materials and wastes is a real environmental problem in Jordan, where it is beginning to receive more and more attention from the government. Jordan has passed laws and legislation for the proper management and control of hazardous substances, with Jordanian laws establishing the main lines of waste management, However, the directives to implement those laws and legislation in Jordan are not It is completely inactive and can be described as random in a way Dealing with the issue of hazardous wastes.
The hazardous waste dump (Swaqa), located in the south of the Kingdom, is overseen The Directorate of Hazardous Wastes in the Ministry of the Environment is a hazardous area If no effective solutions are found to process thousands of tons of Stored hazardous waste
That still breathe their poison through burning fires there in a way It has been going on over the past years
The excesses and thefts
of the 2019 Accounting Board report revealed a loss A large quantity of lead alloys confiscated as they were not counted Those quantities that have been stolen or are left of lead alloys before Commission of Inquiry.
The amount of the stolen items was estimated at 30-40 tons, by the director of the Internal Oversight Unit alone! At an estimated cost of this amount, it was 60,000 dinars. What the Ministry of the Environment has done is to smash the remaining amount of alloys confiscated without the formation of a Commission in due course
The lack of official and original records at the Ministry of the Environment relating to landfill for the purpose of controlling and controlling all landfill entries, whether from hazardous or in-kind wastes, contrary to the law is also indicated.
The report showed the presence of carcinogenic and other flammable substances at any moment in the spambots because of the lack of treatment of all hazardous wastes in the spool, where they were only assembled indiscriminately within the bump through scattered piles and distributed inside the spool. Among these hazardous substances, the report adds, the flammables of flaming laboratories, which are flammable, are processed only through storage, and the wood-blasted layers of KOH, which are combustible with moisture and water, are processed only through storage and are expected to be burned.
Aqaba silos, the oil refinery and the Lafarge Company, which is a carcinogen whose circulation is prohibited, is found inside the landfill and is only treated with landfill. Waste that needs chemical and physical treatment is not isolated or incinerated. Rather, part of it is buried in lined basins and the rest is left without landfill in the landfill, as the report reveals, that the composition of hazardous waste according to its types has not been treated in the correct manner of destruction.
Multiple fires and cancerous diseases due to the mishandling of the Ministry of Environment in the method of disposing hazardous waste inside the landfill, which resulted in many fires and many citizens complained about the emission of unpleasant odours on the day of the fire of the hazardous waste dump in Swaqa. This is not the first time that a fire broke out in a dump Swaqa, according to previously reported by the media, as a similar fire broke out in 2012. Secondary symptoms result from the transfer and transformation of toxic elements resulting from reckless handling of hazardous wastes and their unsafe disposal, when it is filtered to water sources or other environmental media, for example, like air, water, soil, etc., sources of drinking water are polluted, and may accumulate within the food chain. Unfortunately, the landfill has become a place for storing hazardous waste only without working on disposal and treatment, as there is a need to establish physiochemical treatment units, and others to burn waste scientifically, which has not been implemented by the Ministry of Environment until this moment!! The Ministry of Environment's violations of hazardous waste treatment
Among the abuses after evaluating the performance of hazardous waste management in the Ministry of Environment, the most prominent of which is the lack of an integrated system for the management of hazardous wastes (industrial and medical) through which the roles of all relevant authorities are defined and the mechanism for coordination and follow-up to implement general policies and operational programs that will increase the effectiveness of the organization and management of hazardous wastes as it forms A threat to the environment and vital systems, and affects the achievement of the strategic objectives of the Ministry and the environmental sector.
Also, the Harmful and Hazardous Material Management, Transport and Handling System No. 24 of 2005 did not include a direct definition of electronic waste, as reference was only made to it in the electronic waste guidelines emanating from the Basel Convention. The Ministry of Environment does not have a monitoring and inspection system based on duly monitoring the sectors concerned with the disposal of hazardous wastes, and legislation related to hazardous wastes is not enforced, especially with regard to penalties and violations against generators of these wastes, especially those related to companies that do not benefit from tax exemptions.
