‘Years, billions’ needed to rebuild Mosul
In fortified office, gun on desk, official complains of insufficient foreign support
MOSUL (Reuters) – Mosul’s wrecked roads, bridges and broader economy will take at least five years to repair and need billions of dollars of development that Iraq’s government will struggle to afford, officials returning to the battle-scarred city said.
The airport, railway station and university were all destroyed in the long fight to dislodge Islamic State fighters from their main Iraqi stronghold.
Iraqi government forces, backed by a US-led coalition, have now retaken the eastern half of the city, letting regional councilors return for the first time in two-and-a-half years to survey the damage.
“After Mosul is fully liberated, we need a working plan to restore things to the way they were before 2014 when Islamic State took over,” Noureldin Qablan, deputy chairman of the council responsible for Nineveh province, said.
He sat back in his office in the heart of Mosul, the province’s regional capital, an unremarkable building apart from its new concrete fortifications and the teams of armed guards. A gun lay on his desk, next to his phone and piles of paperwork.
Outside, bustling markets have sprung back to life on the eastern banks of the Tigris River. Over on the other side of the river, Islamic State fighters are holed in, defending the densely populated Old City with snipers and suicide bombers.
At the heart of their territory sits the medieval Grand al-Nuri Mosque and its famous leaning minaret, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate in July 2014. Experts fear the fragile brick structure could still succumb to the fighting raging around it.
The 34 Nineveh councilors, who have been meeting in other cities during the occupation, have already started drawing up plans to rebuild Mosul, though they still were not sure where the money would come from, said Qablan.
For the first six months, local authorities would focus on restoring security, water, electricity and fuel, and the return of those displaced by the war.
Under the plan, there would then be a two-year period of reconstruction and the initiation of a reconciliation process, followed by 30 months focused on attracting investment and developing the economy.
Some of the early repair work could cost as little as $5,000 a house, Qablan said.
But even that would strain budgets that he said were underfunded by the central government in Baghdad.
“Honestly, we are not getting enough support. What has been allocated to Nineveh in 2017 was 52 billion Iraqi dinars ($44.5 million), which is a very small sum for a province this size,” Qablan said.
“In 2013 we were allocated 738b. dinars, yet after all this destruction we get just 52[b.]. It is very hard to reach our goals with this sum, so we are counting on foreign grants.”
Council officials are in talks with the United Nations, international aid groups and friendly states, he said. Italy was already helping rebuild a hospital.
Outside, on the eastern side of the river, foreign investment was already flowing back in, in the form of market stalls heaving with Turkish and Iranian fruit and vegetables, replacing the less plentiful Syrian produce that had dominated under Islamic State.
Tobacco shops, banned by the ultra-hard-line Sunni group, have reopened.
Dozens of men sipped coffee or tea inside The Golden Cafe, looking at their phones and surfing the Web – activities that Islamic State had limited to monitored Internet centers.
“We are happy and comfortable. Life is good,” said one customer, Emad, smoking a hookah outside. “I feel out of this world.”