A bulldozer removes rubble in the Yarmouk Camp in southern Damascus, Syria, on Oct. 9, 2018. Five months after the area was liberated, the reconstruction has recently begun with the first step of removing the piles of destroyed concrete and rubble from main roads. (Xinhua/Hummam Sheikh Ali)
DAMASCUS, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- During the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in the Yarmouk Camp area south of Damascus, the dust filled the place, adding more blur to the destruction in that once-bustling area.
Five months after the area was liberated, dust is still seen in Yarmouk, not from destruction, but the reconstruction, which has recently begun with the first step of removing the piles of destroyed concrete and rubble from main roads.
Bulldozers are now seen in some of the camp's streets, removing the rubble and debris, which have cut the Yarmouk areas from one another. The task doesn't seem as easy as ruins are everywhere in that place, which witnessed intense battles that finally saw IS militants defeated there.
The efforts of cleaning the roads in Yarmouk have started being exerted by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in coordination with the Syrian government.
The Yarmouk Camp had been largely populated by Palestinian refugees in Damascus, the reason why it was called a "camp"; the fact is that this area was booming ahead of the crisis as it constituted of several neighborhoods and marketplaces that were bustling with people.
The Yarmouk and adjacent areas were the last IS stronghold south of Damascus before they were dislodged and defeated in that area in May.
Now, the Yarmouk Camp looks like a ghost town with destroyed buildings seen almost everywhere with black and gray being the color theme of the area, where many buildings' rooftops are bent over and kissing the ground.
One five-story building was seen on the ground with one concrete layer like a squeezed sandwich, and people could tell it was a five-story building by counting the spaces between the squashed concrete layers that were made into one.
The project of removing the rubble from roads, which is regarded as a first step on the road of the rebuilding process in that area, started on Sept. 15 and is designed to be finished in 50 days.
Mahmoud al-Khaled, one of the supervisors on the project of removing the rubble from Yarmouk Camp, told Xinhua that the PLO is now funding the process of opening the main roads in the Yarmouk Camp area.
He said that 40 percent of the Yarmouk area is still good for living, but with necessary repairs, adding that before the beginning of the process of removing the rubble the scene in Yarmouk Camp seemed like there is no place that is not destroyed.
After the rubble was largely removed, al-Khaled said the picture started becoming clearer that some areas are still good for living.
"The project is big and the size of this work is also huge but we have made a very important achievement as the rubble has been removed from most of the main streets and we have started now with removing the rubble and debris from the sub-routes," said the man, who is also an engineer.
Al-Khaled, meanwhile, noted that full reconstruction of Yarmouk Camp, in terms of rebuilding the destroyed buildings, would take years.
He stressed that "the huge amount of fund needed for reconstruction requires the help of foreign countries to help in that process."
Samer al-Shihabi, another supervisor on the project, said removing the rubble would facilitate the return of the residents of Yarmouk Camp to their homes, especially those who can fix their houses.
"The main goal behind this project is re-opening the main roads and the lanes to facilitate the return of people to the Yarmouk Camp and the reconstruction process," he told Xinhua.
He noted that 90 percent of the work has been done, adding the sub-routes and lanes need some more time to be cleared of the rubble.
