Al-Tabqa 365 days after liberation -1

MUHAMMAD AL-ARAB/ AL-TABQA

A year after its liberation, al-Tabqa has witnessed concrete steps in terms of service and organization, starting with cleaning campaigns and repairing vital facilities to establish a democratic mindset based on managing people for themselves through local councils elected by the people to represent them in all aspects of life.

Municipality

Al-Tabqa people woke up on the morning of May 10th 2017, and were preoccupied with the liberation of the city, but the devastation that was left behind Daesh was their preoccupation with the accumulation of waste, cutting water and power outages.

At that time, there was no eye to mistake the tragedy. The accumulated waste creeps in meters and meters along with the houses, public buildings, the rubble of the destroyed buildings and the effects of war blocking the roads and markets, all these things were challenging the Constituent Assembly consisting of al-Tabqa people, especially the Services Committee that have begun to work despite the fact that they collided with the loss of service mechanisms between those who were rotten at the hands of Daesh and coordinated by the statute of limitantions.

As a result of the fact that the voluntary work is a plant of the heritage of the Euphrates man, dozens of al-Tabqa's people, in addition to a number of former workers in the municipal sectors initiated a voluntary campaign, providing them with simple household tools (shovels and small carts) in order to get rid of the accumulated waste, other volunteers were headed to pumping water station to determine its technical status. The sacrifices of the service sectors were preceded by the martyrdom of one of the technicians supervising the engines of obstruction Samer al-Thalaj who martyred at the end of May with a landmine left behind Daesh to recall the memories of pain, and a number of his comrades were seriously wounded, and all these acts were not far from the eyes of the Services Committee which hastened the opening of people's municipality on May 25 in a move that was the most important after days of liberation.

The municipality has established specialized sections to oversee all service fields in the area (sections: Hygiene, Water, Health, Fuel, Firefighter, Environment, Garages) within the framework of regulations established by the administrations in cooperation with the Civil Council at the time.

With these efforts, the situation gradually improved, especially after the municipality received a number of heavy machineries in early October, making a remarkable difference in the speed of collection and removal of waste and debris.

The sewerage system in the neighborhood north of the city is out of service, the sewage department arrived after the inspection and the study showed that the pipes were damaged or blocked due to tunnel digging which was previously implemented as military crossing points and caches before liberation, leading to extensive destruction in the main cisterns to not mention that the study confirmed the erosion of part of the network as a result of non-renewal of more than ten years.

Therefore, the municipality has taken the sanitation department in cooperation with the technical office a decision to rehabilitate the sewage network in a number of neighborhoods of the city and reached about three kilometers on several stages, the first was completed as it was distributed between the northern, central and eastern neighborhoods, the project aims to solve most of sewage problems within the possibilities which will be available during the coming summer months before paving the main and secondary roads after processing the crushers and the asphalt, in addition to heavy asphalt mechanisms.

Water

After fifty days of water shortages due to the fighting and the trenching of pumping stations in the city and the countryside, a systematic policy for the people's municipality in al-Tabqa was to relieve the people, a number of fire engines and tanks were allocated to distribute water to the neighborhoods and alleys of the city, while technical repair workshops were doing their best to pump drinking water, the pumps on the diesel generators and the opening of several fountains distributed throughout al-Tabqa and then worked maintenance units of old pumps in al-Tabqa (Aide, al-Mansoura and Jabbar) and provide diesel fuel to run generators and chlorine for water purification in cooperation with the former Civil Council and after one month of liberation, the people of al-Tabqa and the displaced people were enjoying the water.

In September 2017, the number of municipal departments began to increase steadily with specialization in view of the remarkable economic and demographic growth. The attention was given to the health aspects of following up food safety standards in restaurants and stores, supervising the quality of meat from the slaughterhouse.

The municipality has given the city's environmental and aesthetic aspects an exceptional dimension after removing most of rubble of the destroyed buildings and launching a plan to paint the walls of public institutions and administrative buildings, as well as the launch of nurseries to forestall the city and restore the beautiful gardens to al-Tabqa.

The Euphrates Dam

Since February 2011, the Euphrates Dam has been subjected to considerable risks, such as the control by the armed gangs of the inside dam and the regime's weapons outside it. The dam's body, which includes 8 turbines in its cavity, has been subjected to missiles and raids, which resulted in the work of the eighth detonation completely, coincided with the end of the Russian guarantee contract, which holds Russia the responsibility to protect it and play an active role in preserving it.

 After fifty days of fierce fighting between Daesh and Syrian Democratic Forces, the remnants of Daesh were stored inside the dam as the eyes of the SDF were directed towards saving what can be salvaged from special equipment after the lake was flooded with most of the floors of the dam, therefor, the dam initiated an aerial landing in cooperation with Alliance Forces near the dam site, this operation led to the opening of the spillway gates.

After May 10, 2017, the demining teams toured the facility, paving the way for the technical groups to enter and stand on May 20. After engineering studies and estimates, there was a hope on the possibility of mechanically repairing the eighth turbine accompanied by an identical view of the staff after less than 40 days, the turbine and its stimulus group placed within the test or what the specialists call the spin on the vacuum where the facility was self-supplied.

 This achievement motivated the local technicians, especially after the support they received from the simplicity of the Civil Council then to go through a similar experience to focus on the third turbine after about two months of the repair of the previous and after about five months the eighth, third, first and fifth turbines until the seventh were able to produce electric power if sufficient water supply is available after dam management has increased most of its interest in the repair of the two distribution stations in parallel with the work on the two stations, the electricity workshops of Energy Directorate in al-Tabqa began its work on two levels; the city and the countryside.

In a related context, the Civil Council and then Democratic Civil Administration provided the Energy Directorate with a number of alternative electric transformers for those looted by the mercenaries or affected, as the number reached to about 17 transformers.

And the administration worked to provide network cables instead of those damaged and intermittent as a result of the battles, which resulted in the gradual return of electricity and in the early spring, the electricity has been supplied the entire area of ​​al-Tabqa and large areas of the countryside and reached to supply al-Hurraia Dam of energy needed to manage it in addition to lighting a lot of farms in al-Raqqa in addition to the water pumping station in al- Rasheed farm.

Education

Al-Tabqa was under the rule of the mercenary gangs for almost 7 years and suffered from the different policies of each of these gangs that spread their ideas in proportion to their interests as well as the Baath regime that dominated the area for almost four decades.

Most of what each group has done is trying to establish a popular base that sustainability gives them as they think. The most important means for each group is to address the child's mind and brainwash ideas that serve their interests as children are the broad stratum that is easy to address and control.

IS mercenaries followed the policy of invading the brains of children, which was clearly manifested in their education sector, revolves in the orbit of "Jihad" and the killing of "infidels and apostates, paradise and horsemen eye," even in the issues of mathematics, mercenaries relied on the images of weapons of various kinds in the introduction of mathematical examples.

After the liberation of al-Tabqa and the establishment of Civil Council after 5 days of the liberation, on May 15, 2017, the rehabilitation of the children was set in mind by their return to the schools and the preparation of plans and the rehabilitation of a specialized staff of teachers and educators until the beginning of July of the year which was established by the Education Committee, which was entrusted with the task of reforming what the mercenaries corrupted and all the systems that preceded it and planted in the brains of children of extremist and exclusionary ideas and the construction of a free democratic learner on the basis of modern educational. In addition to that, there were some teachers from al-Tabqa volunteered to teach some children, they opened educational classes in their homes or in nearby schools and others set up tents for children to attend. The volunteers had a great role in rehabilitating the children, this period was considered a period of transition before the opening of schools and gave a qualitative leap for children to forget the period before liberation and its effects.

In the beginning, the Education Committee set up its work plan, which was launched from a count of the number of schools eligible to receive students, despite the existence of some problems encountered in the functioning of the committee, the most important of which is the destruction of some schools and the massacres by Daesh of some others displaced people fled the areas of conflict, before the liberation of the mercenaries clutches, but the Education Committee and in cooperation with the engineering teams of Syrian Democratic Forces cleaned all schools of mines and the restoration of some schools that were partially vandalized as well as the return of displaced persons to their areas that were liberated by Syrian Democratic Forces.

The second phase started with the rehabilitation of a cadre of teachers and educators through the intellectual courses and scientific institutes of the Syrian Democratic Council, this stage ended with the start of the academic year 2017-2018 on the 1st of October 2017 with the opening of more than 160 schools and registering of more than 50,000 students.

The first chapter was a re-preparation of children's brains and acceptance of the school and teacher and study after more than 6 years of complete absence of any educational phenomenon and brainwashing children with different ideas.

The first semester ended with 50 thousand students undergoing the examination process and the success rates were excellent compared to the reality that the children lived.

After the end of the semester, students returned to school with additional students enrolling and opening new schools in both the city and the countryside, and the number of educational staff increased.

With the increase of teaching staff and schools in al-Tabqa area, the work of the Education Committee has developed. Teachers Union has been established, which supervises the organization of teachers within the area and defines the frameworks of work, in addition to the public administration of schools within the Education Committee.

Health

The health sector, like other sectors in al-Tabqa, suffered from a major deterioration in the period of control of Daesh. In the area, chronic diseases and epidemics were spreading, as well as monitoring some cases of AIDS among the mercenaries themselves, especially among foreign elements.

The greatest damage caused by the mercenaries to health sector is the transformation of al-Tabqa National Hospital; the largest health sector in the area, into a military barracks and a field hospital to treat their elements and fortifications, thus making it vulnerable to frequent air strikes by the regime's flight and taking it completely out of service and escaping the most competent doctors and specialists from the area.

The ignorance of the mercenaries has also reached children by preventing the vaccination campaigns of all kinds to enter the area under the pretext of the prohibition of dealing with "infidels" which reduced their immunity against various diseases that affect children.

The Euphrates Wrath campaign led by Syrian Democratic Forces reached the city in late March 2017 and the battles continued until 10 May of 2017. The mercenary gangs were severely defeated and the city was liberated from their abjectness. The campaign went to al- Raqqa city to pursue the remnants of IS mercenaries.

On 15 May of 2017, five days after the liberation of al-Tabqa city and for the urgent need to manage the liberated city, al-Tabqa Civil Council was established, which undertook to rehabilitate what was destroyed by mercenaries at all levels, including the health sector, which is an important sector in any area.

The Health Committee began to perform its tasks immediately after the selection of qualified members to carry out these tasks. The Health Committee, in collaboration with Syrian Democratic Forces' demining teams, cleaned the hospital of mines and explosive devices planted by mercenaries inside and outside the hospital before they were defeated, and the Health Committee took it as a center.

During this period, and as a result of mercenaries’ residues, and the war conditions in the area, diseases especially of children and women spread. The health committee launched appeals to the international organizations to reduce these diseases but found no ears.

At the beginning of July 2017, the Kurdish Red Crescent provided support to the health sector in the area despite the modest potential that it has to develop a branch in al-Tabqa in the National Hospital with wings for children and women and a cadre of doctors and nurses who are specialist and pharmacy distributing medicines free of charge.

In this period, al-Tabqa witnessed a heavy return of doctors, pharmacists and specialized medical staff that fled the city under the rule of IS. The clinics and pharmacies abandoned by their owners were also opened. There was a body that regulates this density of clinics and pharmacies. In October of 2017, pharmacies syndicate updated and they took up the task of licensing the pharmacies and monitoring their workers and the quality of medicines and their validity and prices which contributed to a large extent in the organization and reduced the spread of pharmacies unlicensed and the illicit drug trade that indiscriminately spread in the city during IS mercenaries occupation.

In this period, the Kurdish Red Crescent worked to cover the medical poverty in al-Tabqa countryside to the launch of its mobile clinic in its two sections "children and women working 5 days a week distributed over 3 lines of al-Jarniah line and the line of al-Mahmudli in and the line of al- Mansoura in the eastern countryside of al-Tabqa in conjunction with the processing of the natural birth ward in al-Tabqa National Hospital.

Due to the simple potential of the Health Committee in al-Tabqa, most citizens have to travel to other cities for treatment such as Manbij, Kobani and Qamishlo despite the distance that caused many deaths, especially the critical medical cases because the National Hospital does not have an ambulance or advanced devices to treat chronic conditions such as Kidney and thalassemia cases especially in children due to lack of blood bank provides blood from all groups to treat the disease despite all the pleas whose  voice have not been heard.

The Health Committee granted licenses to two private patients who contributed to some extent to shortening the distance, noting that the costs of treatment were high but called for conditions to be opened.

With the increase of the support of the Kurdish Red Crescent in cooperation with some international organizations of medicines and some medical and laboratory equipment, etc…in addition to the opening of the women's operations wing in the hospital at the beginning of this year, these contributed greatly to alleviate the disease and poverty coincided with a wide range of citizens due to free treatment provided in addition to the numerous vaccination campaigns launched in al-Tabqa areas and countryside.

However, there are still some chronic diseases in the area of ​​the stratum, such as kidney diseases, which have been monitored by the Health Committee in al-Tabqa in many cases, and need 3 sessions of washing at least weekly and the cost of each session is less than 75 thousand Syrian pounds, or about 150 US dollars, as well as travel costs for treatment in other cities mentioned above.

There are also severe cases of thalassemia spread among the children. In turn, the Health Committee has monitored many cases and the area is completely impoverished by a multi-gang blood bank.

Organizationally

Over the past decades, al-Tabqa has suffered from the one-party and exclusionist policies practiced by the Baath regime, which caused the outbreak of the Syrian crisis within the so-called "Arab Spring", which ended in Syria controlling the mercenaries and Takfirin on most of the Syrian areas, which worsened the situation under the Baath regime and the most black era was an era of IS occupation that has spurred the area in which mercenaries practiced the most extreme forms of religious, administrative and exclusionary extremism.

With the launch of the Euphrates Wrath campaign, which carries the project of the democratic nation and its arrival in al-Tabqa city and its liberation, al-Tabqa Civil Council was formed after 5 days of liberation which reorganized all aspects of life in al-Tabqa in general and what was instituted by the society through the local councils that is basically governing the people to themselves.

The Foundations Instituting Body held meetings and seminars to acquaint citizens with the concept of the democratic nation which was the beginning of the establishment of councils and bodies within each united neighborhood among them the problem of the People's House which is responsible for a group of neighborhood councils.

Each neighborhood’s council consists of several committees, including the Services Committee which is responsible for serving the neighborhood in all respects, whether from cleanliness, relief, water, electricity, sanitation, and others.

One of the most important committees in the neighborhood’s council is the Reconciliation Committee whose importance is highlighted by resolving outstanding and emerging problems among the members of the neighborhood through the reconciliation process and also in case of disagreement with the members of the neighborhood. The Reconciliation Committee in the neighborhood’s council is responsible for this matter.

Over the past four months, the body has formed more than 180 councils in al-Tabqa and its work’s mechanisms developed with the increase of awareness among the citizens about the importance and effectiveness of the councils in managing the matters away from authorities.

These councils contributed to putting the cornerstone to change the mentality based on hierarchies and favoritism, these councils, through conducting the citizens' affairs from all aspects of life, have become the peoples’ voice and have been representing their decision.

Despite the weakness of these councils, the joining of most of its members and co-chairs with awareness courses pushed the intellectual development forward, and the councils became the destination of all the people of al-Tabqa.

Tomorrow: the liberation of al-Tabqa, how it affected the political and military reality in the area.

(H/S)

ANHA