The German Agency and Ministry of Environment will join forces with Jordan’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and the municipalities of Irbid, Mafraq and Karak to improve solid waste collection systems by training their staff in the maintenance and repair of the motor pools and in organizational advisory systems, according to the PETRA News Agency, the official news agency of the Kingdom of Jordan.

The cooperation comes as part of a 6.5-million Euro grant from the German Organization for Technical Cooperation to Jordan to address the issues of solid waste management, climate change, and the protection of local ecosystems under several agreements.

The maintenance agreement will address the challenges posed by the increasing pressure on solid waste collection and management in certain governorates affected by the high influx of Syrian refugees.

The municipalities supported by this project face challenges in guaranteeing an efficient and effective management system for their vehicles, according to the PETRA news agency. Through the project, experts will train technicians on the job using fully equipped mobile repair trucks. Further, a monitoring system will be developed for the maintenance of the fleet.

For the first time in Jordan, according to the PETRA news agency, a project to address the theme of ecosystem services will be implemented through the support of the German Organization on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The main strategic objective of the project is that biodiversity and ecosystem services are increasingly taken into account in national policy decisions, specifically with regard to their significance for adapting to climate change. The Ministry of Environment will be strengthened in its development of a National Biodiversity Policy with guidelines for the evaluation of ecosystem services, which will be presented to Parliament for approval.

Other environmental projects will tackle climate change.