A Shift in Momentum; Amman during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Amman | Introduction
Although the history of Amman is heavily connected to the emergencies happening in neighboring countries, Amman is not a city that has had many itself. Home to nearly 4 million people, with the city hosting up to 32% of all refugees in Jordan who arrived in Amman fleeing wars over the past decade, this makes Amman a gathering spot of various backgrounds and ethnicities.
Change is in the DNA of the city, the dynamics of Amman would change significantly after each wave of refugees arrived at the country, and the city would grow exponentially, having a population of 1,000 in late 19th century to 1,000,000 a century later. Currently the city is spread over 1680 km² and is the country’s political, economic and cultural center.
Urban dynamics
On March 20th the government announced a lockdown for four straight days, with the army taking control of the streets blocking the movement in and between cities. In the following weeks, the government introduced a few preventive measures in order to control the spread of the virus and issued 11 defence orders to facilitate the application of the national defense law. Those measures had an effect on the rhythm of everyday life in cities and small towns across the country.
The first few weeks of the lockdown may have taken their toll on the residents of the city causing them to rush to the streets in high numbers whenever the government allowed at the time. One can feel how stressed people became as a result of the lockdown causing them to bulk-buy food supplies and face masks out of panic in the first few days after the lockdown was eased a little. The lockdown came at the expense of the economy as most major sectors were shut down for a long period of time, which led to an increase in unemployment across different sectors.
During the lockdown, people were prohibited from using cars unless they held a permit issued by the government. One of the most challenging aspects of the lockdown in Amman was adapting to the new patterns of movement. Since Amman has a hilly topography and heavily relies on cars for transportation, with the number of cars being 510,000 according to a 2015 estimate, in addition to having a weak pedestrian infrastructure, walking was never an option to many users of the city except in certain areas where the infrastructure is suitable for walking. The lockdown forced people to use their feet and bicycles to move around their neighborhoods. A change in movement patterns indicates a change in the speed of how we experience the city. This pattern offers people a chance to reconnect with smaller parts of neighborhoods, a chance to make sense of the spaces that surround us and change our perception of the city.
On April 27th and as the number of cases was slowly decreasing and the bans were being lifted slowly, the government introduced a new system to organize vehicular movement in the city. The system is based on the even-odd plate which allows vehicles to run based on the last digit of the registration plate. This has significantly led to lowering traffic congestion in the streets to the extent that a group of people signed a petition to make it permanent.
Economy during the Pandemic
Economy seems to be the most critical aspect during the Covid-19 emergency. The last 2 months witnessed many people losing their jobs, most notably day laborers who earn their money on a daily basis, with nearly 300,000 families being affected by this. May 3rd witnessed the reopening of business in a full capacity including those who weren’t allowed to operate during the lockdown, however not all sectors can reopen, the tourism sector for example, which employs nearly 50 to 60 thousand people and contributes up to 10% of the national GDP is still closed as all the flights being currently suspended.
Another critical issue is food security. In April, the minister of commerce and industry decided to stop all exports of food in order to ensure food security over the upcoming period, knowing that later that month, there would be a noticeable increase in demand of food supply due to Ramadan. Importing and exporting are becoming relatively hard processes to do within the current pandemic, prompting many experts to urge the different sectors to try and become more self-reliant.
As of recently, the government seems to be considering ending the bread subsidy, which will in turn raise the prices of pita bread in a country that has nearly 1.5 million people living in poverty. Since bread is very important to the Jordanian house, this same issue led to nationwide protests and strikes across the country in 2018 that ended in the prime minister at the time, Hani Al-Mulqi, resigning from his office.
These tough economic situations will surely alter the way people are using the city. A recent report by the UNDP shows that 68% of vulnerable Jordanian households reported significant impact on their livelihood during the pandemic, with many of them reporting hardships in meeting rents.
Unpredictable Future
This pandemic is unpredictable, one can’t really foresee if the current changes in lifestyle will carry on after the pandemic is over. Will the gap between east and west of the city increase as a result of the pandemic? Will walking be a new-normal for the people of Amman? And will those newly acquired habits help reshape the infrastructure of the city?
In the last two weeks the numbers of new cases started surging again due to unnoticed cases coming in from the borders who were not practicing self-isolation. Currently Amman and a few neighboring cities are going through what seems like the second wave of the virus, which would imply further lockdowns and more restricted movement in those areas that would add to the economic difficulties in those cities. The only certain reality in the near future is that it will take a long time to rebuild the economy after the pandemic is over, and it may be a chance to rethink what it means to be self-sustainable in times where globalization is challenged.
