Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Residents of the northeastern governorate of Mafraq on Monday threatened to escalate measures against the government for what they considered "disastrous" conditions amid increasing influx of Syrian refugees to their governorate.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, a representative group of residents called for immediate government measures to deal with the deteriorating security, administrative, and sanitary conditions in the governorate.

"Mafraq hosts Zaatari camp and a great number of Syrians in the neighborhoods and villages of the governorate, which led to imbalance in social safety, increase in residential and commercial leases, traffic jams, deteriorating services of the state-run hospital, cemeteries, bakeries, water scarcity, and increased trash volumes that exceed 60 tons per day," the letter said.

After the government declared Mafraq a "disaster area" earlier in the year, the residents formed a number of civil youth and voluntary campaigns to clean up the governorate streets and manage its markets, but the situation remains "intolerable," the letter said.

The residents addressed the government by noting that the Mafraq municipality is unable to carryout its administrative and oversight roles inside the city, exacerbated by a poor budget amid increasing numbers of residents with the influx of Syrian refugees.

Mafraq hosts the Zaatari camp, which houses more than 80,000 Syrian refugees, in addition to thousands more who reside and work in the towns and villages of the governorate.

The letter called on the government to increase Mafraq's share of sanitation machinery, trash trucks, increasing the number of sanitation workers, increasing Mafraq's share of water supply, and increasing Mafraq's budget to enable it to carryout its functions.

The letter, signed by the so-called "Mafraq Rescue Committee," concluded by threatening to take escalating measures and plead to human rights organizations if the conditions in the governorate do not improve within one week.