Damascus-SANA
In its tenth session of the ninth regular session of the third legislative session, held today under the chairmanship of Speaker Hammoudeh Sabbagh, the People's Assembly discussed the performance of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, and issues related to its work, foremost of which are the measures taken to confront the effects of the devastating earthquake that hit a number of governorates.
The Minister of Public Works and Housing, Eng. Suhail Abdul Latif, confirmed in a presentation to the Council that the number of buildings revealed by the construction safety committees in the governorates affected by the earthquake, in cooperation with the General Company for Engineering Studies and the Engineers Syndicate until the tenth of May, amounted to 182169 residential, commercial and government buildings distributed over 73915,31347 buildings in Aleppo, 75597,1310 buildings in Latakia, <>,<> buildings in Hama, and <>,<> buildings in Idlib.
Minister Abdul Latif explained that these committees worked according to a unified guide and form to evaluate and classify buildings into "completely damaged in need of demolition", "damaged in need of strengthening", "intact buildings that need simple maintenance" and "sound buildings", indicating that the construction companies affiliated with the Ministries of Public Works and Housing and Defense have been tasked with immediately starting to secure 300 prefabricated housing units, to house the affected people and transfer them to sites in Aleppo, Latakia and Jableh, in addition to requesting the Public Corporation for Housing urgently to locate Ready to pay tribute to apartments for those affected in Aleppo and Latakia.
Abdul Latif pointed out that the apartments that will be praised as a first step for the benefit of those affected by the earthquake are distributed among 120 apartments in Aleppo, 160 apartments in Latakia, on lands owned by the Public Corporation for Housing, 320 apartments in Aleppo, and 160 apartments in Latakia on lands owned by the two city councils in them, where 10 billion Syrian pounds were allocated for the construction of part of these buildings on lands owned by the Public Corporation for Housing, and were financed with 8 billion Syrian pounds disbursed. Currently, a request has been raised to fund the remaining 2 billion liras.
In their interventions, a number of members of the Council called for the need to develop the plans of the main cities in the governorates, with the aim of preventing the spread of slums and areas of violations and informing citizens of the results of the investigations of the construction safety committees into the causes of the collapse of buildings in the areas affected by the earthquake, stressing the need to accelerate the construction of more apartments for those affected by the earthquake, and to prepare the infrastructure for prefabricated apartments in the specified locations and announce the standards for distributing these apartments to them.
The members suggested allocating those affected by dividers instead of subscribers dismissed from housing associations, due to their failure to pay their installments, accelerating the pace of reconstruction of partially damaged buildings, establishing new residential suburbs in Damascus countryside governorate, due to the increase in population density in it, and facilitating all ministries and public bodies to establish labor housing for their workers, noting that the Public Corporation for Housing selling land to housing associations for large amounts instead of symbolic amounts violates the instrument of its creation as a non-profit institution.
The members called for reconsidering the expropriation law and compensating citizens whose properties were expropriated, in accordance with the values prevailing on the date of the issuance of the expropriation decision, investigating the fact that some city councils in the governorates allowed the construction of a larger number of floors specified in one vertical building, granting building permits at the expense of agricultural lands and tightening control over the work of housing associations, wondering about the reasons for the low rates of implementation of youth, labor and savings housing.
The members pointed to the importance of removing the existing encroachments on the lands of housing associations that were unable due to the repercussions of the terrorist war to follow up the implementation of the construction of buildings on these lands, and work to secure apartments and rent them at reasonable wages to citizens, in order to reduce the great burdens on their shoulders, due to the high rent allowances in many areas.
In his response to the interventions, Minister Abdul Latif pointed out that random samples of building materials were collected from housing projects implemented by public construction companies and projects for the private sector, taking into account the diversity of sample sources in terms of the different laboratories producing them, then they were coded and delivered to both the laboratories of the Ministry of Industry and the University of Damascus with a total number of 78 samples of iron of different diameters, and 62 cement samples, 15 of which are not sealed and the rest are sealed, and we are waiting for the results.
Minister Abdul Latif continued: The Engineers Syndicate was also asked to update the engineering code for the earthquake and to tighten the procedures and instructions that must be followed to face any emergency that would affect residential buildings, noting that the engineering code for the earthquake is periodically evaluated and updated continuously, compared to scientific development and the development of the new vision of the Syrian code regarding the subject of earthquakes, indicating that all interventions of the members of the Council will be followed up with the concerned authorities, and provide the Council with responses to them.
The session, which was attended by Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs Ahmed Boustachi, was adjourned to 12 noon on Sunday, June 4.
Waseem Al , Adawi and Loay Husamo
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