After earthquake... siege hinders even protection of public safety in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh

 Despite the risk of collapsing some of the buildings damaged by the earthquake and threatening the lives of nearby citizens in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, the demolitions affected only the walls of a number of non-storey houses.

 Meanwhile, the infrastructure problem of sewage and water lines remains without a fundamental reform, due to the lack of machinery and materials, amid the siege imposed on the two neighborhoods by the Damascus government forces.

 Despite the catastrophe of the devastating earthquake that occurred on February 6, and the citizens in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods were greatly affected by it, the Damascus government did not end the siege, and it is still obstructing the entry of materials and machinery.

 The People's Municipality in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods is trying, with all its capabilities, to provide services to citizens

 "we continue our work"

 In the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, 5 buildings collapsed, and 400 other buildings were damaged and became uninhabitable, according to a report issued by the Technical Office of the People’s Municipality in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, while 12 buildings need urgent removal.

 The engineer and member of the technical office in the municipality, Hussein Ahmed, says that they have formed 3 committees to inspect the damaged buildings and houses in the two neighborhoods.

 The demolition of 12 buildings is pending

 Ahmed pointed out that after the statistics, it became clear that 12 buildings need to be removed immediately, to preserve public safety.

 He noted that the demolitions were limited to the walls of the non-storey houses damaged by the earthquake due to the lack of sufficient mechanisms and in line with the simple capabilities available to the people's municipality for the two neighborhoods.

 Not rushing to fix underground faults is a big risk

 In addition to buildings, the infrastructure has been severely damaged, especially since most of the connection networks and sewage and water pipes were previously worn out and in need of maintenance. According to Eng. Ahmed, "the longer maintenance work is delayed, the result will be bad for the lives of citizens."

 He stressed that failure to expedite the repair of underground faults poses a risk of water leakage into the basements and bases of buildings, which threatens their collapse.

 The workshops of the People's Municipality in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods maintain some of the pipes and replace them according to what is available to them, and rely on the manual work of workers, due to the lack of mechanisms, the unavailability of some of them, and the lack of basic materials for work.

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ANHA