Hizbullah to rebuild Dahiyeh
Waad project aims to restore Hizbullah stronghold in southern Beirut which was reduced to rubble during Second Lebanon War. Reconstruction financed by residents' compensation from government supplemented by Hizbullah funds; construction to start in June
According to the Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star, Hizbullah promised to restore the neighborhood to its exact state before last summer's war.
The majority of the local residents fled during the war, and most of the buildings were reduced to rubble.
Dahiyeh rubble (Photo: Reuters)
According to the report, Hizbullah established the 'Waad' (Promise) project to oversee renovations. Most Dahiyeh residents transferred power of attorney over their properties to the Waad, allowing Hizbullah to collect on their behalf indemnity payments from the Lebanese government for war damages. The Waad is responsible for designing urban plans for the area and contracting architects and engineers for the reconstructions.
Hassan Jichi, general manager of the Waad, said that each resident received $53,000 in compensation payments from the government, but that the sum was insufficient to rebuild the neighborhood. Jichi said Hizbullah would finance the rest of the rebuilding costs so residents would not have to use their own funds.
At a press conference in Beirut Thursday Jichi said, "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."
"I hope that the international donor countries and charities who have already expressed willingness to rebuild will give money to Waad," he said.
The Daily Star report said that Waad members based their urban plan on a questionnaire distributed to Dahiyeh residents. All the new buildings will be earthquake-resistant, contain underground parking lots, a two-door elevator, power generators, fire alarms and facilities for the disabled, Jichi said.
The plan also includes public parks, gardens and benches, which a Kuwaiti millionaire has agreed to finance. According the Waad's chief architect, the aim of the plan is "to beautify Dahiyeh, rather than change its identity because we want people to recognize their homes."
In a phone interview with the Lebanese newspaper, a Waad engineer said, " 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."
"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," he said.
