Environmentalists laud new eco-police, but urge further regulation

Health workers have hailed the establishment of an “environment police” department, tasked with preserving the country's fragile ecosystem. The department will become fully operational within six months, Minister of Environment Khalid Irani said on Wednesday. Experts are quick to point out the damaging effects of Jordan’s high rate of environmental pollution. “By looking at the effects of pollution throughout the country, we’ve noticed a negative impact on overall mortality and direct links between pollution and death from heart attacks and lung cancers,” said Mahmoud Arab, head of the Jordan Red Crescent Hospital. “Children are especially vulnerable to high levels of air pollution.” According to figures from the World Health Organization, 30 percent of deaths from disease occur before 15 years of age. For acute respiratory diseases, however, this figure is twice as high. Irani said the new police force, which will wear a distinctive uniform, would work on creating “a pollution-free environment”, fielding patrols to inspect factories, industrial zones and picnic areas. They will also have the power to fine violators of environmental laws and will be equipped with metres to test car exhausts to ensure they meet emission standards. One official from the Public Security Department said coordination mechanisms would be devised between the environment police and the ministries of environment, agriculture and water and irrigation. “If we want this to work, all involved parties must join the effort,” he said, conceding that a bloated public-sector bureaucracy had traditionally served to hamper environmental protection. A new draft environment law was recently endorsed by parliament laying out penalties for violators, including imprisonment and hefty fines for illegally dumping toxic material. Penalties for environmental violations in Jordan range from JD20 [about US $28.2] for anyone littering in public places to JD200 [about US $282] for illegal tree-logging. Nevertheless, the new legislation has been criticised as inadequate by environmentalists, who say penalties are still too lenient to deter would-be violators. The most common threats to the nation's limited woodlands – along with yearly drought since the mid-1990s – include illegal logging and illegal grazing of livestock by ranchers.