Since then, this amount has significantly increased, and local authorities in Anbar and Diyala estimated that 80% of essential services were damaged and destroyed in their provinces, including bridges, as well as the electricity, health, water and education sectors. In addition, there has been a loss of state financial resources such as those associated with the agricultural sector in areas with abundant arable land.
As areas started to be liberated, the Iraqi government announced reconstruction plans, with a fund set up on March 11 for construction projects and the return of the displaced. The government allocated, within the 2015 budget, 500 billion dinars ($451 million) to the fund.
In addition, on March 17, immediately after the liberation of Tikrit, the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers announced the adoption of two separate tracks for the reconstruction of liberated areas: a short-term track focused on providing security, water, electricity, food, shelter, medical care and education, and a long-term track for rebuilding infrastructure.
In that regard, the secretary-general of the Council of Ministers, Hamid Khalaf Ahmad, said March 24 that rebuilding liberated areas would require cooperation between international organizations and donor countries. He stressed “the need to quickly coordinate and establish ministerial crisis cells tasked with expediting the implementation of the reconstruction plan,” as part of the long-term track.
To date and despite the many promises by the government for an immediate launch of reconstruction projects in liberated areas, no projects have been initiated. In fact, no detailed plans have been announced yet with regard to reconstruction projects. The Parliamentary Services Committee on Oct. 19 criticized the absence of reconstruction plans for liberated areas, with service ministries still having to draft such plans, “in addition to a lack of sufficient financial allocations to initiate reconstruction plans.”
Comments are closed.