For displaced Iraqis, Baghdad to build four new housing complexes

Work is under way in Baghdad province to build four new housing complexes to accommodate Iraqi families displaced to the capital from flashpoint areas.
Deputy governor Jassem Bakhati told, "The province has started to build four new caravan complexes to house families displaced to Baghdad."
"There are an estimated 30,000 such families comprising some 150,000 displaced persons from Ninawa, Salaheddine and Anbar, where security conditions are difficult right now," he said.
Baghdad finished building two of the caravan complexes in August, one in al-Nahrawan (al-Nabi Yunus complex) and the other in Bawb al-Sham (al-Nabi Shayth complex), together inhabited by more than 1,500 displaced families.
"The new complexes also will include housing units in the form of 50-square-metre caravans, which will be equipped by the ministerial committee in charge of aiding the displaced," Bakhati said.
"Three of these camps will hold 350 caravans each and be set up in al-Dora, al-Husseiniya and Zayouna, while the fourth will be located in the area of the al-Dabbash warehouses and hold 250 caravans," he said.
"The Zayouna site will be dedicated to housing displaced Christians and Yazidis," he added.
Bakhati said the province had "received 20 billion dinars ($17 million) from the government to carry out the housing projects and furnish them with infrastructure including drinking water, sewage, electricity lines and various housing needs, as well as schools, kindergartens, and sports and recreational facilities".
"The province is looking to build additional caravan housing projects to accommodate all the displaced people in Baghdad province, most of whom have been forced to live in schools, places of worship, abandoned buildings and makeshift housing centers," he said.
Baghdad also is working alongside international humanitarian organizations such as the International Organization for Migration and the Norwegian Refugee Council to house displaced Iraqis and help them find work or start small businesses, he said.
Baghdad provincial council head Riyadh al-Adhadh spoke to the "difficult humanitarian and economic conditions" from which displaced Iraqi families are suffering. He pledged that the council would continue to support the displaced and offer them a helping hand until "this ordeal passes and they can return to their hometowns, once these are liberated from the terrorists' hands".
Helping the displaced and preparing suitable housing for them is a key priority for the council, al-Adhadh said. Large efforts are under way to meet all of their needs, he added, most importantly their need for housing and a normal life. This is achieved through the construction of standardized complexes that offer varied infrastructure as well as healthcare, social care and education services, he said.
He also stated, "We also have mutual co-ordination with several ministries, including the Ministry of Trade, to make it possible to restore and make fit for habitation unused shopping centers, factories and organizations and use them to house displaced families."
"As part of its relief plan for the displaced, the Baghdad local government intends to build at least five additional caravan complexes in various areas in the capital over the next year, 2015," said Mohammed al-Rubaie, head of the Baghdad provincial council's strategic planning committee.
"We opened two standardized complexes last summer, which helped relieve considerably the problem posed by the fact displaced families occupied many schools in the capital," he told.
"By opening more such housing complexes we hope to provide appropriate temporary housing to all displaced people, especially those currently staying in abandoned buildings and facilities and in makeshift residences," he said.
Since the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" overran the city of Mosul last June, the provincial council has worked to adopt emergency relief plans and take all steps to help the displaced and provide them with housing, al-Rubaie said.
"We have been providing health services, food aid and relief supplies to displaced families in collaboration with other state institutions," he said. "We have registered these families' sons at schools and colleges so they may continue their studies and also made multiple work opportunities available to unemployed displaced persons."
He added, "We will keep up our support."