Iraqi government maps out six-year rebuilding plan for Shengal
Iraq's Prime Minister's Office and Shengal representatives have reviewed a UNDP-drafted reconstruction plan meant to run through 2032. The projects' combined cost is put at roughly $565 million.
RastinewsIraq's government has drawn up a six-year roadmap for rebuilding Shengal, based on a report prepared by the UNDP. Details of the plan were reported by Rûdaw.
Representatives from the Prime Minister's Office and from Shengal met on September 17 to discuss the district's reconstruction plan. Khalid Seydo, the lawmaker representing Shengal in the Iraqi Parliament, told Rûdaw the meeting covered the UNDP roadmap, which is designed to be carried out over six years. Seydo said the parties agreed to form a committee, drawn from representatives of all sides involved, to oversee the plan's implementation.
Total cost put at $565 million
According to the UNDP report, reconstruction and service projects across Shengal's various areas will require 875.827 billion dinars, or about $565 million. The plan is to be rolled out in several stages through 2032. Seydo said Shengal representatives and relevant institutions had been asked to submit their views and recommendations on the roadmap.
Most public buildings badly damaged
The report also documents the damage inflicted on Shengal's public institutions during the 2014-2017 war with ISIS. It found the courthouse, land registry office, heritage buildings and police stations 100 percent destroyed. The notary office and Agricultural Bank building sustained 80 percent damage, the statistics directorate 75 percent, and the orphanage 70 percent.
Over 36,000 homes affected
ISIS attacks and the fighting that followed damaged 36,140 homes across Shengal. Sinuniye subdistrict suffered the worst destruction: of 9,944 homes, 4,175 were completely destroyed and 5,769 damaged. In Kayrevan, 7,703 homes were reported damaged. Repairing and rebuilding these homes is estimated to cost 810.11 billion dinars, or roughly $523 million.
Sector breakdown
The report allocates 54.9 billion dinars for health, 32.5 billion dinars for education, 18.3 billion dinars for water and sewage, 50.7 billion dinars for road repairs, 31 billion dinars for agriculture and livestock, and 71.5 billion dinars for electrical infrastructure. Projects in Shengal's district center alone are costed at more than 77.2 billion dinars, or about $50 million.
Kurdish and Yazidi institutions in Shengal have not issued a separate assessment of the plan, and questions Rastî put to them on the matter remain unanswered.
Shengal was overrun by ISIS in 2014
ISIS attacked Shengal in August 2014, carrying out what amounted to genocide against the area's Yazidi population, including mass killings and abductions. The district was retaken from ISIS in 2015 in a joint operation by YPG/YPJ and Peshmerga forces. Years later, the reconstruction effort is moving forward even as most of the families displaced from Shengal have yet to return.
/rudaw/