Seven years since the liberation of Tabqa

Tabqa canton is considered one of the tourist cities in North and East Syria, due to its location on the Euphrates River, and the presence of the Euphrates Dam, which is considered one of the largest dams in Syria. The city is inhabited by Arabs, Kurds, and Christians, and its population is 315,403 people, according to the latest census by the census office in the canton.

ISIS mercenaries occupied Tabqa canton in mid-2014, wreaking havoc there. In response to the call of the canton’s people, notables, and tribal sheikhs, on March 22, 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched the operation to liberate Tabqa from ISIS mercenaries as part of the Wrath of the Euphrates campaign launched in November 2016. The operation culminated in it was liberated from mercenaries on May 10, 2017.

After the liberation of Tabqa, 11 civil committees were formed, including service, organizational, economic, and social committees, to supervise the reconstruction of the city, remove the dirt barriers and rubble accumulated in the main and secondary streets, and form institutions, communes, and councils in the villages and neighborhoods. Nine municipalities have also been opened in the countryside and the city since the liberation to provide basic services to the people.

Service reality

The local administration body and municipalities operating in Tabqa took it upon themselves to restore life to the city, by providing services continuously since the beginning of the liberation.

The Local Administration and Municipalities Authority in Tabqa launched several projects to pave roads after the announcement of liberation, including main roads and secondary roads, with an amount reaching 22 thousand cubic meters, in addition to paving the Tabqa-Jarniyeh road with a length of 30 km.

It worked on lighting the city and its main streets, which amounted to 70%, in addition to repairing sidewalks, restoring sewage sewers, organizing the city, opening 11 roundabouts within the district and fully equipping them, in addition to granting 815 building permits from the time of liberation until now.

So far, the local administration and municipalities have planted two hundred thousand trees in the canton’s rehabilitated parks, in addition to opening more than 100 sub-parks and building spaces, and 10 forest sites within Tabqa and its countryside.

Education

The Education Authority in Tabqa Canton also attached great importance to the field of education, so it began rebuilding the destroyed schools and rehabilitating them, to advance the educational reality from which the sons and daughters of the district were prevented during the control of ISIS mercenaries. It worked to restore and rehabilitate 238 schools, 19 of which were partially destroyed and 16 completely, which accommodate 52,615 male and female students.

Women's participation in institutional work

Women, in their turn, were able to assume leadership in all institutions within all civil, military, service and social fields, and their efforts culminated in unifying ranks under the name of the Zenobia Women’s Association

Health reality

The health sector was affected, like other sectors, during the control of ISIS mercenaries. It was almost completely destroyed and its contents stolen, turning it into a fragile sector.

After its formation in 2017, the Health Committee in Raqqa Canton was able to rehabilitate Tabqa National Hospital and open ambulatory health centers within the countryside and the city, after which all departments of the National Hospital were opened, including the care and children’s department, the blood bank, and the college, and the opening of a private clinic within the hospital for mammography and echocardiography. .

In addition to launching the project to rehabilitate the maternity and children’s hospital, which will enter service during the current year, the number of dispensaries that were opened reached 14 dispensaries distributed within the countryside and the city. To provide first aid to families.

Agriculture and industry

The administration also attached great importance to agriculture in the province; The areas of agricultural land irrigated through irrigation projects and stations on the Euphrates River, such as (the Swedish project, are 1,050 hectares and the First and Second Valleys Project, with an area of 1,600 hectares). As for the irrigation projects through wells and diesel engines on the Euphrates River, their area is 749,438 dunums, and the rainfed areas, according to the Agriculture and Irrigation Authority, are 749,438 dunums. 600 thousand dunums.

So far, the administration has granted 106 industrial licenses to factories that manufacture mats, water, ice, automobile oils, mills, and feed factories. These factories provide job opportunities for hundreds of people in the district.

Culture and art

The work of the Democratic Autonomous Administration was not limited to the service, economic, and health aspects only, but rather focused on the cultural aspect, and with the establishment of the Culture Committee, it gave great importance to the culture of the people of the district, and opened the Center for Culture and Arts in Tabqa in 2018. It activated the Directorate of Tourism and Antiquities Protection.

The Cultural Center in Tabqa and its teams participated in several festivals and events organized in Tabqa and at the level of the northern and eastern Syria region. The Culture Authority in Tabqa also opened the Cultural Center Theater, which was destroyed, in 2022, which is considered one of the most important and largest theaters in North and East Syria.

The co-chair of the Executive Council of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Tabqa Canton, Ahmed Al-Omar, confirmed: “After liberating the region from terrorism, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Tabqa took it upon itself to rebuild the city and restore life to the infrastructure, urban and service infrastructure, with the help of the people of the region.”

Ahmed Al-Omar said: “Over the course of 7 years, the administration was able to achieve great achievements, thanks to the help of the people of the class and the institutions that were opened within it in all fields, health, economic, service, political, and military, and to reach all segments of society.”

We are the nucleus of democracy in Syria

Al-Omar noted that: “DAA is a product of the democratic nation’s thought put forward by Leader Abdullah Ocalan, which calls for solidarity, cohesion, brotherhood of peoples, unification of the Syrian lands, ending the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and ending the Syrian crisis by peaceful means. Today we are the nucleus of democracy in Syria.”

Al-Omar stressed that despite all the difficulties over the previous years of attacks, destruction, and bombing that came with the aim of destroying the nation’s democratic project, the strength and will of the people “is stronger than the enemy’s cannons and missiles,” and that the Democratic Autonomous Administration was able, with its unified vision and clear approach that seeks peace and security, to achieve great successes on the political, military, service, social and diplomatic levels.

T/Satt.

ANHA