On the confusion of the State, civil and international society and the people left behind

Confusion reigns in the port of Beirut. There is no clear, effective and efficient mechanism to deal with the rebuild file. The only thing that has been done is an assessment of the material damage and loss. Even the evaluation is very confusing, as evidenced by the emergence of several evaluations from different sources, with varied and divergent results. No one has a clear idea of ​​how to organize rescue, assessment and reconstruction work. There is no single oversight agency that plans, monitors, tracks and verifies. The situation is over. The confusion reflects the level of decline and fatigue of state institutions and clearly indicates the dependence of official and private actors concerned with this issue. They may be waiting for funding. This is one more thing that is not yet clear. Without centralized management, this disaster has become one of the crises of this ruined system. The existing system treats it as a transitory situation that requires overcoming it to leave citizens on the brink of disaster to fend for themselves. It is a case of death. Where will the money come from? Who will oversee the business? Who will be willing to exclude moneylenders and merchants from archaeological sites? Who will make sure not to touch what remains of our memory? About the space in which part of our history has accumulated? Who will house those whose houses have been destroyed? Such is the case of death by intentional homicide. Come take down an entire community. A month has passed since the disaster and we have not yet started picking up the wounds. There is a lot of flourless fanfare looking for a carrion restoration part. It is a neighborhood whose buildings are scattered here and there. Some of its inhabitants are in pieces, others are homeless. All are fragments in the eyes of this regime.

Damage assessment: an achievement?
One month after the Beirut port explosion disaster, the value of material damage estimates remains uneven. In the first week it was $ 15 billion. Subsequently, the World Bank issued a report stating that it amounted to a maximum of $ 4.5 billion. Then came the BWC’s financial audit report saying it was worth $ 5 billion. However, after estimated physical disclosure by the Engineers and Contractors Unions and some engineering firms, it became clear that damage to buildings, excluding damage to the port, amounted to $ 2.5 billion. Perhaps the last number is more accurate.

Pondless movement
The size of the stock after the disaster was remarkable, but has yet to pay off. At first, the High Relief Commission appeared and assigned consultant Khatib and Alami to inspect the damage. The head of the agency has spoken publicly about food and medical aid. Days later, the army appeared alongside the HTS, then there was a gradual decline in its role. The authority had assigned, under the direction of the resigned prime minister, a contracting company to volunteer to remove some of the debris directly at the accident site under the supervision of the army. Also in that period, a meeting was held between the Union of Engineers, the Governor of Beirut, its Mayor and the Director General of Antiquities to coordinate the damaged buildings. The municipality has commissioned the consulting firm Dar Al-Handasah (Shaer) to prepare the files for the granting of aid to medium-sized and high-risk buildings that are in danger of collapsing. These files have not yet been completed. In a televised statement to the mayor, he said that these files are urgent and that they have been allocated 40 billion pounds, which are still in preparation and an official date for their follow-up and implementation has not yet been set.

In the same period, the port, within a circumference of one kilometer wide, also witnessed extensive international movement. International institutions that have alliances with local institutions have arrived in Lebanon to participate in clean-up and debris removal work, such as the International Labor Organization. About three weeks later, a Norwegian foundation (NRC) announced a tender for the restoration of buildings and facades. The Orthodox Youth (IODCC) has also tendered for the restoration of 110 buildings. Dozens of international institutions arrived with contacts and meetings to learn about the mechanisms to contribute to reconstruction. It is noteworthy that many of them revealed their distrust in state institutions, and that they are in the process of defining a mechanism to work with institutions, associations and unions, including the National Coordination Commission, which was made up of four professional unions (engineers, contractors, lawyers and accountants) as well as the Industrial Association. However, so far, he has not issued any practical steps or understandings between them, rather the matter has been limited to the angle of good intentions without much action.
It is regrettable that these international institutions are awaiting instructions from countries to uncover aid mechanisms outside of state institutions. This confusion is mainly the result of the confusion of the state, which has failed to control the centrality of its work. Perhaps state officials themselves are awaiting instructions from international institutions, the World Bank, and agencies affiliated with Western countries in particular.
Although the movement of the union, the associations and the rest of the elements and individuals of the civil society was more active, it was still slow compared to what happened in similar cases. After the Israeli enemy invaded Lebanon in the early 1980s, a rapid reconstruction workshop began, and after the July war, the reconstruction workshop was more present despite the vast difference in destruction. Perhaps this slowdown is a reflection of the slowdown of the State and the international community in defining a clear focus for the reconstruction phase.

$ 2.5 billion is the value of property damage closest to the precision of losses resulting from the Beirut port explosion, which were mentioned in the Engineers Syndicate Survey.

However, it is important to note that on August 12 a press conference was held at the Union of Engineers to announce an emergency plan to inspect all buildings affected by the explosion within a specific area in order to clarify the status of construction buildings and the size of the risks they pose to public safety. Within this framework, an operations room was installed and hotlines were set up to attend to citizen communications, more than a thousand volunteer engineers were received and work began on a central electronic information base in the Union. The Union published the results of the survey as of August 31, which were as follows:
– The total number of buildings surveyed is 2015 in the Achrafieh, Rameel, Saifi, Mudawar, Mirfa and Msaitbeh areas.
The number of heritage buildings surveyed in need of rapid intervention is 362, of which 92 are at risk of collapse and 270 buildings are in need of rapid restoration.
There are 388 buildings that need structural reinforcement before winter.
There are 145 buildings that need an immediate evacuation.
There are 50 buildings that need insulation due to the possibility of parts of them falling.
There are 475 buildings with cracks covering some of its internal and external parts.
268 buildings are subject to total and partial collapse.
218 buildings are prone to secession in their non-structural components.
This scientific volunteer effort was organized by the Union and involves the expertise of engineers from different Lebanese regions, and is led by expert engineers who are well known in the engineering world, highlighting that the Contractors Association played a role in this field. by providing mechanisms and workers to remove damage and debris and open roads.
In addition, there have been individual company initiatives volunteering to reinforce buildings that pose a threat to public safety. Currently, more than five contracting companies, in collaboration with local associations, are restoring facades in Mar Mikhael, Gemayzeh and Pharaoh Street, monitoring the removal of rubble, glass and wood, sorting and handing them over to specialized glass recycling associations. and plastic.
More than 60 contracting companies have registered their desire to participate in the free work in the construction field if the materials are insured by donors.

Reconstruction opportunity
Of course, the rebuilding process represents an opportunity to operate a collapsing sector, but it is a random opportunity so far that does not take into account the historical facts about the concentration that this could have in the sector. The State, until now, remains absent and has not revealed the characteristics of an action plan, not even promises of reconstruction and compensation. While in the past international institutions were rushing to offer their services to affected countries in the field of reconstruction and housing, they are now awaiting international and regional decisions or the results of the Macronian initiative to know the size and timing. of the intervention. For example, when the delegate from Qatar visited Lebanon, announcing that his country had adopted the restoration of schools and hospitals, it was not known who would study and prepare the files and how to disburse these pledges, which cost around 50 million dollars. There is also talk of the preparations for the reconstruction of the port by the French at a cost of $ 600 million, and there is a request from the Kuwait Fund to act in the study and implementation of measures without state intervention at an estimated cost of $ 100 million, and unions and civil society institutions are running out of voluntary oil.
Today, people are left alone in the open air, distraught and desperate, waiting for mercy and protection from the evil of winter with nylon instead of glass ships that were late to the sea, and the torrent of ink and the media will not compensate. people for their losses because they live in a tragic state of loss. And since there is no alternative for the State to fulfill its duties to manage the reconstruction process in flexible and transparent formats away from corruption and favoritism, the basic demand of the people lies in a roadmap that includes a classification of the implementation projects and those involved in their construction to allow the flow of financing.

* Engineer

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