UN-Habitat Promoted Urban Recovery and Resilience in Bartella/Nineveh Plain through Rehabilitation of 100 Significantly Damaged Houses

In Bartella, 100 war-damaged houses of vulnerable returnees that were categorized by UN-Habitat engineers as “major damage” and “severely damaged” were selected to be rehabilitated. In total 797 vulnerable returnees benefitted from the action. The action also supported 8 female-headed households in Bartella, and resulted in employment of 58 returnees including 21 women. This project is part of UN-Habitat’s larger Urban Recovery Programme, rehabilitating approximately 2,400 significantly damaged houses in liberated areas. Through Urban Recovery Programme, UN-Habitat aims to contribute to the humanitarian-Peace-Development nexus, enhancing resilience of the vulnerable returnees to rebuild their lives and communities.

His Eminence Mor Timotheous Mousa Al-Shamani, Archbishop of Mor Mattai Monastery of Syriac Orthodox in Iraq, opened the ceremony and expressed his appreciation for this intervention to facilitate the return of all vulnerable displaced people and stated that the real religion is to feel and care for others.

The Governor of Nineveh H. E. Nawfal Hamadi Al Sultan highly welcomed this humane support to accelerate return to Nineveh plain and to all areas in the province and acknowledged the collaboration between religious leaders, local communities, governments and the United Nations.

H.E. Mr. Fumio Iwai, Ambassador of Japan to Iraq, who attended the ceremony, said that “First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for all who contributed to this project. Yesterday, Japan commemorated the seventh anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake which caused unprecedented damage wrought. There are still a large number of people who have not yet returned to their hometowns. Therefore, further efforts are needed. I hope that Iraqi people also make their efforts to return IDPs to their hometowns to achieve the real victory. Japan is determined to serve displaced/returning people, refugees and host communities in Iraq, while supporting Iraq’s efforts.”

On his part, Dr. Erfan Ali, Head of UN-Habitat Iraq, reiterated the commitment of the agency to upscale its support in Nineveh plain and all liberated areas to empower all Iraqi people from all backgrounds, and assured that UN-Habitat is committed to continue working, to promote recovery, resilience and reconstruction in Iraq.

Through the support of UN-Habitat, the Iraqi Government identified more than 60,000 destroyed or severely damaged houses, and as the United Nations’ housing specialized agency, UN-Habitat is carrying out Housing Rehabilitation projects in Nineveh plain, Western Mosul, Sinjar District, Ramadi and Faluja. UN-Habitat launched its appeal in the International Iraq Reconstruction Conference in Kuwait to mobilize financial support to rehabilitate 10,000 houses and to construct 3,000 core-house/low-cost housing units for the owners of the fully destroyed houses.