Prefabricated houses sent by the UAE to Syria
Dubai – Al Arabiya.net
Published in: May 13, 2023: 12:32 PM GST
Last updated: May 13, 2023: 01:02 PM GST
At a time when the World Bank announced that the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its many aftershocks that struck northern Syria last February caused damages estimated at $5.1 billion.
Faced with this catastrophe, hundreds of families were left homeless as a result of the collapse of their homes.
The first of its kind
For this purpose, prefabricated housing arrived at the port of Latakia from China during the past few days, according to the Syrian news agency “SANA”.
In turn, a member of the Executive Office for Health and Civil Defense Affairs, Mowaffaq Al-Soufi, explained that 228 prefabricated homes arrived on board the “Lady Mia” ship.
He added that the homes are provided to those affected by the earthquake that struck northwestern Syria and Latakia, explaining that the ship is the first of its kind and other ships will follow.
The agency also did not mention the details of the housing units or the areas in which they will be built, except that they are for Latakia.
--According to the authorities, the houses will be handed over through the “Syrian Red Crescent” branch, provided that they consist of one room, a kitchen and a bathroom, and their area ranges between 40 and 50 square meters.
These housing units allocated for the Lattakia governorate are added to others that preceded them with a donation from the United Arab Emirates, which announced last week that it had prepared a thousand prefabricated housing units under the directives of the President of the State, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.
The Emirates Red Crescent said in a tweet on Twitter that the cost of the project amounts to 65 million dirhams, or about 17.7 million US dollars.
These units also consist of two bedrooms, a hall, a kitchen and a bathroom, according to the news agency “WAM”.
Emirati funding
It is noteworthy that the project will be built on an area of 100 dunums, in which the governorate has completed infrastructure rehabilitation work, in preparation for the installation of housing units in the Al-Gharraf neighborhood and the expansion of Damsarkho, within the city of Lattakia, and Al-Fayd, Al-Naq’a and Al-Fawwar, in the city of Jableh, and the village of Astamu.
The Chargé d’Affaires of the UAE Embassy in Damascus, Abdul Hakim Al-Nuaimi, considered that the project is an expression of the UAE’s standing by the Syrian people, and its continued relief and humanitarian support.
It is noteworthy that the death toll from the earthquake rose to nearly 6,000 in Syria, which was devastated by a war that left about half a million dead, displaced millions and destroyed the infrastructure.
The earthquake killed more than 45,000 people in Türkiye.
