The Bashar al-Assad regime government has required residents of the city of Adra al-Amaliya in the Damascus countryside to pay 40 percent of the cost of repairing their apartments, arguing that this city is a special case in the “reconstruction.”
On Monday, the pro-regime Al-Watan newspaper quoted the General Director of the General Organization for Housing, Suhail Abdel Latif, as saying that “contributions to the repairing of apartments in Adra al-Amaliya will be paid in full, and then the owners of apartments will repay just 40 percent of the total costs of the entire apartment in monthly installments, once repairs are completed.”
Abdel Latif said that what the residents will pay is for the costs of the apartments subject to renovation, removal or reconstruction, with 60 percent being covered by the reconstruction committee and 40 percent at the citizen’s expense.
The regime official justified this decision by saying that “the Adra al-Amaliya suburb will be a special case in terms of reconstruction, because it is a labor suburb.”
The areas, which the regime has regained control over, still suffer from a lack of services because of the regime’s inability to cover the costs of rebuilding them. This represents one of the biggest problems faced by the regime, especially given that Assad has previously said that the cost of Syria’s reconstruction will require 400 billion dollars.
Western countries are reluctant to participate in Syria’s reconstruction unless a political transition process begins based on UN resolutions, which has pushed Russia to criticize the West, especially the United States.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
