New hospital, two housing complexes for Falluja

 

By Thair al-Asaad

 

Azzaman, June 9, 2005

 

The government has earmarked $46 million for the building of a new hospital and two housing complexes in Falluaj, according to Hamed Jeyad, the engineer in charge of the city’s reconstruction.

 

The 200-bed hospital will be supplied “with the state-of-the-art health facilities,” said Jeyad.

 

He also said each of the new housing complexes will include 250 flats as well as public amenities.

 

The allocation is good news for a city that has borne the brunt of the country’s fight against insurgent activities which have escalated in the past two months.

 

Jeyad said the government has earmarked $100 million to rehabilitate the city’s infrastructure.

 

However, he said the money was not enough to compensate the victims and pay for the damages resulting from last year’s U.S. attack on the city.

 

Thousands of workshops and businesses are still in ruins and Jeyad said the U.S. onslaught had rendered Falluja’s industrial quarter, almost useless.

 

“The industrial quarter is the hub of Falluja. We have studied the damage and its needs … we intend to compensate the owners once we have the money,” he said.

 

Regarding school buildings many of which were completed destroyed in the fighting, Jeyad said: “We have allocations to build 21 new schools which we expect to be completed in eight months.”

 

A new bridge will be constructed on the Euphrates River south of the city to ease traffic jams, he added.

 

“We have many projects in the pipeline to develop the city. These include a maternity hospital, a corniche on the Euphrates, flyovers and new streets in the heart of the city and a new sewage system,” he said.

 

But the implementation of these projects will need additional funds which are not available now, he said.