Al Jazeera Net Investigates Survivors’ Conditions in Syrian Regime Areas

Damascus – “I still wake up at night terrified by the sound of an earthquake happening. I rush to the children’s room immediately, but after seeing things and seeing them static in their place, I realize that what I felt was just a delusion,” says Fatima, 42, a survivor of the devastating earthquake that hit areas in northern Syria and southern Turkey on February 6th 2023.

Fatima added, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, “I suffered from dizziness for 4 months after the incident, so whenever I lay down to sleep, I felt a strong dizziness similar to the one that hit me on the night of the disaster, so I suffered from insomnia, and I don’t sleep until dawn, I hear the call to prayer and feel calm and doze off”.

Fatima still deals with psychological effects even after a year has passed since the devastating earthquake, facing challenges as she and her two children (Neha, 14 years old, and Qais, 11 years old) moved to the countryside of Damascus from Latakia, dealing with various challenges, the most difficult of which is managing the family’s livelihood after her husband’s death last year.

On the first anniversary of the earthquake, the catastrophic effects left by it still loom over thousands of Syrian families in government-controlled areas, especially with the majority of those whose homes were completely destroyed or whose homes are no longer suitable for habitation due to cracks and fissures in their structure, without any compensation for their losses.

Piles of rubble left by the earthquake on February 6th, 2023, in the city of Jableh (Al Jazeera)

Alternative Housing

Despite the announcement by the Latakia Governorate, in the months following the earthquake, of the identification of 7 sites for the construction of prefabricated housing units to accommodate the affected, the infrastructure preparation phase for the majority of these housing units has not been completed yet, and even when completed, the capacity of these houses is not enough for the number of affected people in the governorate (about 142,000 affected).

The alternative houses being provided by the governorate for the affected are distributed across 350 housing units in the first Gharraf area, 133 in the second Gharraf area, 123 in the city of Jableh, 205 in the Dimsircho area, and other destroyed areas.

In addition to the suffering of the affected in Latakia and Jableh from the absence of solutions for the alternative housing problem, they also suffer from a significant increase in the rent of residential apartments since the earthquake due to “increased demand for apartments in the governorate, and the depreciation of the Syrian pound, and the rising cost of living,” as mentioned by Basil, a construction contractor in Latakia, to Al Jazeera Net.

Haj Mustafa al-Lazeqani (a pseudonym for an earthquake survivor) says, “The rent for the apartment in February last year was 250,000 pounds (17 dollars), but today it has reached 800,000 pounds (55 dollars).”

He adds, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, “The landlords of the apartment paid the rent for six months after the incident, but for the past 6 months, I have been the one paying the rent, which increases every two months.”

Al-Lazeqani explained, “I rent a furnished apartment because I cannot afford to buy furniture and electrical equipment, and although I registered for prefabricated housing units here in Gharraf, few ready houses were delivered to other families, and I got nothing.”

Challenges Dispersed Dreams

Ismail, one of those whose homes were destroyed by the earthquake in Latakia, complains about the government’s slow implementation of residential tower projects in the city to compensate the affected for their homes, as well as the “favoritism and intermediaries” that dominate the distribution of alternative housing units.

Ismail said, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, “If the situation continues in the citizen service center this way, I will not get the apartment before 10 years. I registered for a residential apartment at the center immediately after the announcement, but no one contacted me. The apartments that are close to being prepared for registration depend on favoritism. Someone registered for one even though his house did not collapse.”

Ismail concludes by saying, “I used to dream a lot, but today my dream has become to own a house where my family and I live under its roof as we were in the past.”

The director of the branch of the Public Housing Authority in Latakia, Kenan Saeed, confirmed last October that the Authority is working on implementing a project consisting of 8 tower buildings containing 320 apartments distributed between the governorate and the city of Jableh.

These projects are still under implementation even after a year has passed since the earthquake. The number of affected people in Latakia has exceeded 142,000, with a total of 967 collapsed buildings in addition to 3833 buildings in need of reinforcement and repair.

The collapse site of the “Mobile Top Building on the Damascus Road” in Latakia (Al Jazeera)

Neglect of Affected Groups

The needs of the earthquake survivors in areas under government control exceed housing and extend to all aspects of life including food, drink, healthcare, and essential living necessities.

Ramadan, 42, who lost his home following the earthquake in Aleppo, says that despite regularly receiving food baskets from various sources, notably humanitarian organizations, the rent for the apartment he rented after the earthquake and the significant increase in commodity prices over the past year have greatly exceeded his family’s capabilities.

He adds, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, “I received a sum of 3,150,000 pounds (225 dollars according to a previous exchange rate) in October last year from the Syrian Red Crescent organization to help me as an earthquake victim. I spent most of it on buying some essential items that we lost in our demolished apartment, such as a cell phone and lighting battery, and used the remaining amount to pay off the debts accumulated over the past year. I am now looking for additional work to support my family.”

The living crisis in government-controlled areas has worsened for the earthquake survivors, leading many of them to sell some of their food and health benefits received from relevant organizations to purchase more essential items.

A UN assessment pointed out that the total damage and losses in Syria as a result of the earthquakes amounted to about 9 billion dollars, and that there is a need for about 15 billion dollars for recovery in the affected areas.

Meanwhile, the Board of the National Fund to Support Earthquake Affected, established by Legislative Decree No. 7 of 2023, reviewed the results and support percentages provided in the first stage of its work in their meeting last Sunday, highlighting that they provided financial support of around 21 billion pounds (about 143,000 dollars) to 381 affected out of a total of 1378 affected from the “A” and “B” categories, including those whose homes were completely demolished.

The Board did not pay attention to the remaining segments of the affected, whether those whose homes cracked, or whose shops were destroyed, or who lost their cars due to the earthquake.

Approximately 90% of Syrians have been living below the poverty line since 2021 (before the earthquake), while half the population suffers from food insecurity according to UN reports.