Community consultation workshop in Downtown Amman to discuss flash floods risks

UN Habitat in collaboration with the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and Future Pioneers, has launched a series of community consultation sessions with the local community in Downtown Amman to discuss the flash floods risks and identify the key priorities based on the local community’s knowledge and experience.

Organised under the “Strengthening the Social Stability and Resilience of Vulnerable Jordanian Communities and Syrian Refugees in Amman Against Flash Floods” project, funded by the Government of Japan, the consultation sessions, aim to strengthen government and community resilience and capacities to better manage flash floods through the implementation of flood resilient infrastructure.

Around 40 participants attended the first workshop, including representatives from GAM, the Chamber of Commerce, residents and Syrian refugees, merchants, and local CBOs.

The consultation sessions with the local community are based on the participatory City Resilience Action Planning tool (CityRAP), which was developed through the collaboration between UN-Habitat and DiMSUR and comprises of a series of participatory meetings and workshops.

The first consultation workshop took place over two days and focused on introducing the participants to the concept of urban resilience. UN-Habitat’s technical consultant Ammar Ismael, introduced the CityRAP tool and explained its ‘five pillars of resilience’- urban governance, urban planning and development, resilient infrastructure and basic services, urban economy and society, and urban disaster risk management. Throughout the workshop, the participants shared their perspectives and first-hand experience in facing flash floods in Amman over the past years.

The project seeks to address the urgent needs of the community by providing a comprehensive and integrated response against flash floods through community consultations and awareness raising. During the coming few weeks, several consultation sessions will be organized with different focus groups from the local community to identify the community’s needs and priorities.

A prioritization workshop will be also held to agree on the top priorities and discuss viable solutions for reducing the identified risks and building resilience against flash floods in the targeted area. Accordingly, one of the identified priorities will be translated into a pilot community green infrastructure project that will be implemented as part of this intervention.