| Construction arm? |
The branch of Hizbullah's construction arm created to oversee the rebuilding of the capital's battered southern suburbs said Thursday it would begin in June to restore the neighborhood to its state prior the Israeli bombardment last summer. A majority of residents in the four municipalities of the Dahiyeh have given the Waad (Promise) project, a subsidiary of Jihad al-Binaa, power of attorney over their properties, allowing the group to collect indemnity payments from the government on their behalf, design an urban planning scheme for the congested district and determine which Waad general manager Hassan Jichi said the LL80 million ($53,000) of government compensation promised to owners of each destroyed apartment unit would not be enough to finance the construction of the 1.2 million square meters of built-up area damaged during war. Hizbullah and the Waad project plan to cover the remaining costs so that residents do not have to pay out of their own pockets, he said, without specifying the size of the gap in payments.
"Since people needed to return to their homes quickly, Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah held meetings with the owners of 281 properties in need of rebuilding, and came up with two scenarios that honor the social conventions and common memory of Dahiyeh," Jichi said at a news conference held in Beirut Thursday morning. "I hope that the international donor countries and charities who have already expressed willingness to rebuild will give money to Waad," he said.
Based on the results of a questionnaire distributed to residents, Waad's seven-member advisory committee drafted an urban planning scheme that would allow structures to be rebuilt according to their pre-war dimensions, with the same layout. All of the new buildings will be
| "Did I mention the part about sending money? In small unmarked bills." |
Indeed the Waad project has its own rebuilding philosophy, a Waad engineer told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity. "The people who live there wanted to go back to the same place they lived before, they want the same neighbors, the shops under their homes, everything," he said in a phone interview after the news conference. Some people did not even want problems in their homes to be addressed. One family had a problem with their balcony and they did not want to fix it. People insisted on having the same number of rooms and bathrooms, but we did make buildings more colorful."
Rahis Fayyad, a vocal critic of Solidere and a member of the Waad advisory panel, said residents wanted to retain the character of the Dahiyeh and avoid mimicking Solidere by increasing the amount of commercial space and building high-rises.
The government has been slow to deliver compensation, said Jichi. However, "the idea is that they should finance the rebuilding." Other private and government donors have also pledged to contribute money and building materials, he said, naming "Gulf states, Syria and Iran" and "even some European donors and Lebanese Christians."
| "Operators are standing by!" |