One of the problems the local authorities currently face is a lack of funding, al-Awsaj said. While the local authorities were working hard to deal with the problems, the federal government had not sent them enough funds – only around a million US dollars - to do anything other than get the most important government departments running again. Yet conservative estimates meant that the owners of apartment buildings in Ramadi would be getting anywhere between US$2 billion and US$4 billion in compensation.
“The Anbar provincial council is serious about removing all obstacles to the return of local people,” says Taha Abdul Ghani, a member of Anbar's provincial council. “We are working hard to assess as many applications as possible by increasing overtime and staff numbers. The council and the local people are really cooperating well on this,” he added. “Although even when everything has been paid out, the reconstruction of the city will still require at least five years of non-stop work.”
While the local authorities seem to have high hopes, albeit with some reservations, not everyone is as optimistic. “The destruction in this province, and in Ramadi in particular, is huge,” argues Bilal Ibrahim, a local economist.
“It requires a correspondingly huge amount of money for reconstruction – some estimates put the figure as high as US$15 billion. That figure may well be correct. However the funding just isn’t there – Iraq is suffering from an economic crisis and finding the cash is going to be a major challenge for the local authorities, the federal government and donor countries.”
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