Enab Baladi – Zeinab Dawwa
With the increasing number of returnees to al-Hajar al-Aswad city, administratively part of Rif Dimashq governorate, following the fall of the previous regime, the suffering of residents intensifies due to poor services in the region and the weak response of the concerned authorities to the demands of the city’s inhabitants and its local council.
Al-Hajar al-Aswad has witnessed a slow return of residents in recent years before the fall of Assad’s regime, due to poor services, high costs of repairing their homes, and the difficulty of obtaining the previously imposed security approvals.
The number of completely destroyed buildings in the Yarmouk camp and al-Hajar al-Aswad reached 2,109 totally destroyed buildings, 1,765 severely damaged, and 1,615 partially damaged, bringing the total number of damaged buildings to 5,489 during the eight years following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, according to an atlas published by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on March 16, 2019.
A little bit of life
Aliya Darwish, a woman in her forties, suffered from the high rents she had to pay throughout the years of displacement, which compelled her, with the help of her children, to repair half of what remained of her destroyed home in al-Hajar al-Aswad and accept living with “a little bit of life,” as she expressed to Enab Baladi.
Tens of families displaced from the city share the same suffering regarding high rental prices, the high cost of living, and fears of returning to rebuild their destroyed homes amid the lack of services within the neighborhoods of al-Hajar al-Aswad and the significant damage to the infrastructure, according to Mufida al-Jasem, a resident of the al-Thawra neighborhood in al-Hajar al-Aswad.
Rami al-Sayed complains about the marginalization that al-Hajar al-Aswad has suffered from, which has lasted for decades until today, as the most basic requirements for living in it are not available, alongside the spread of rubble and debris, with the municipality being unable to remove it.
The city lacks any official security point that residents can turn to in case of any problem, at a time when crime rates in Syria are rising, according to al-Sayed’s remarks to Enab Baladi.
The condition of al-Hajar al-Aswad residents
The number of families that returned to al-Hajar al-Aswad after the fall of Assad’s regime is approximately 4,000 families, and the influx of families continues daily, as reported by the head of al-Hajar al-Aswad municipality, Baraa Muhammad Barakat, to Enab Baladi.
Residents faced difficulties during the previous regime in obtaining the “security approval” that was imposed as a prerequisite for return, and the number of those who obtained it did not exceed 550 families, while the number of those who actually returned at that time was only about 350 families.
The level of destruction in al-Hajar al-Aswad reached 70%, and the municipality stands helpless in the face of this destruction, with a lack of resources and budget to improve services, currently relying on the local community to overcome some obstacles, according to the municipality head.
Residents of al-Hajar al-Aswad are currently divided into two groups: those who obtained security approval after much difficulty, and another group that returned in the last five months, forced to live among the rubble of their destroyed homes due to a lack of funds for repairs.
Barakat clarified that the service situation is very poor in al-Hajar al-Aswad; it is a disaster-stricken city, and speaking of 4,000 families (about 24,000 people) returned to the city is insignificant compared to the size of the area, as its population was around 650,000 before the revolution.
Dilapidated services and lack of budget
The city of al-Hajar al-Aswad needs a sewage system and repaving for the roads, especially the main ones, due to shelling and destruction. The municipality, with the help of the local community, is working on paving and filling in roads and holes, and covering sewage openings to avoid accidents and risks to residents, according to the head of the municipality, Baraa Muhammad Barakat.
Despite the cooperation between the municipality council and the local community, the lack of resources and budget poses an obstacle to solving all service issues, as the municipality has only one tractor without a trailer and one garbage truck. Requests have been submitted to Rif Dimashq governorate to supply it with specialized vehicles for removing the rubble that amounts to 1.5 million cubic meters, which is likely to increase upon starting the removal of the dilapidated houses.
Studies conducted by the engineers of the Water Unit indicated the unsuitability of the drinking water network in the city and the need for replacement. Although there are 30 wells within al-Hajar al-Aswad, only one well operates, which is insufficient to supply all the current residents, and the cost of installing a new water network, excluding maintenance of the wells, is about 20 billion Syrian pounds, according to Barakat.
Regarding the electricity situation in al-Hajar al-Aswad, the city has three power transformers with a capacity of 650 watts, which was adequate for the population before the fall of Assad’s regime, but is insufficient for the current population. Furthermore, it does not reach all neighborhoods like al-Jazeera and Hosh al-Rihaniyya, especially after one of the transformers burned out. After raising several requests to the Emergency Electricity Department in Sayyida Zainab and the Rif Dimashq Electricity Directorate, al-Hajar al-Aswad received a transformer with a capacity of 1,000 watts.
Al-Hajar al-Aswad: Tractor and water well for thousands of returnees Enab Baladi.
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