Waad Project: Pledge of a Continuous Victory
Source: Al-Manar TV, 14-8-2008
When Jafar Mourtda's family left their home in Beirut's southern suburbs on the third day of the "Israeli" aggression against Lebanon in July 2006, none of them expected it would be their last time to close the door behind.
"Israeli" bombs destroyed the Kazma building.
It was among two hundred and fourteen buildings destroyed during the war. A further 150 buildings were partially destroyed and 233 others damaged.
"Israeli" bombs displaced over one million Lebanese from across the country, but it was the southern suburb "Dahiye" that suffered the heaviest bombardment - some 942 "Israeli" air strikes during the 33-day war, according to figures from the Lebanese army.
Today, as you enter to Dahiye, you see new buildings rising and swathing in huge banners, including one showing a picture of Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah with an excerpt from one his speeches: "It shall return more beautiful than it was. That's a Pledge from the truthful Secretary General."
Two years on the end of the war, Sayyed Nasrallah's "Pledge" is turning into a shining truth and the resistance victory is being completed with a reconstruction process that shocked the enemy and gladdened the Lebanese. "Waad" is the Arabic for Pledge and the title for a reconstruction project launched by Hizbullah to rebuild the devastated areas in Dahiye.
Directly after the war, Waad provided the residents with two choices: to either rebuild their own apartments or let the project assume responsibility for the reconstruction. The vast majority of the residents took the second option, knowing that they could trust the new company. And where compensation payments weren't enough, Hizbullah, pledged to cover the difference.
Waad gathered some of Lebanon's best urban planners and architects and gave them a mandate to return everyone to their homes as quickly as possible and to restore the fabric of the neighborhood.
Yet within the same basic framework, Waad is also seeking improvement. The company's design of renovated regions there is more lighting and open spaces, traffic reduction through improving roads and creating parking lots, upgrade of buildings in line with modern safety and seismic principles and establish gardens in order to give the streets and buildings a greater sense of place and character.
Forty-eight studying and consultation companies, nineteen entrepreneur enterprises and six supervising firms are involved in completing this titanic mission.
The Waad headquarters can be assimilated to a bee cell. Directors, architects and workers spend extra work hours aiming at fulfilling the Pledge by the end of 2009.
To date, Waad has repaired more than 105 of the 150 partially destroyed buildings with all 1,470 families moved back in.
Concerning the totally damaged structures, Kazma's building was the first fruit of the Waad project; seven others are to be handed within less than two months, fifty six are still under construction and twenty three have their footings ready.
With all their ambition, the directors of Waad list difficulties that might hinder the project. The then unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora did not pay 1553 apartments of the 5288 their down payments and none of the residents has received the second payment. Parallel to the unconstitutional government's obstruction in delivering compensations, a second problem emerged. The cost of building materials has been increasing fast. "The estimated expenditure of the project (U.S. $370 million) increased and the main reason is the escalating prices of construction materials," explains one of the directors.
Waad has proved to be unique in reconstruction. In addition to modernization and structural improvements, the Waad team has been responding to residents in requests related to the interior design of their future homes. Residents can choose their coating and floor tiles from a list of twenty items.
Mortada's family is only a sample of thousands others who have returned to their homes by the fulfillment of the divine victory; Waad's Pledge.
When Jafar Mourtda's family left their home in Beirut's southern suburbs on the third day of the "Israeli" aggression against Lebanon in July 2006, none of them expected it would be their last time to close the door behind.
"Israeli" bombs destroyed the Kazma building.
It was among two hundred and fourteen buildings destroyed during the war. A further 150 buildings were partially destroyed and 233 others damaged.
"Israeli" bombs displaced over one million Lebanese from across the country, but it was the southern suburb "Dahiye" that suffered the heaviest bombardment - some 942 "Israeli" air strikes during the 33-day war, according to figures from the Lebanese army.
Today, as you enter to Dahiye, you see new buildings rising and swathing in huge banners, including one showing a picture of Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah with an excerpt from one his speeches: "It shall return more beautiful than it was. That's a Pledge from the truthful Secretary General."
Two years on the end of the war, Sayyed Nasrallah's "Pledge" is turning into a shining truth and the resistance victory is being completed with a reconstruction process that shocked the enemy and gladdened the Lebanese. "Waad" is the Arabic for Pledge and the title for a reconstruction project launched by Hizbullah to rebuild the devastated areas in Dahiye.
Directly after the war, Waad provided the residents with two choices: to either rebuild their own apartments or let the project assume responsibility for the reconstruction. The vast majority of the residents took the second option, knowing that they could trust the new company. And where compensation payments weren't enough, Hizbullah, pledged to cover the difference.
Waad gathered some of Lebanon's best urban planners and architects and gave them a mandate to return everyone to their homes as quickly as possible and to restore the fabric of the neighborhood.
Yet within the same basic framework, Waad is also seeking improvement. The company's design of renovated regions there is more lighting and open spaces, traffic reduction through improving roads and creating parking lots, upgrade of buildings in line with modern safety and seismic principles and establish gardens in order to give the streets and buildings a greater sense of place and character.
Forty-eight studying and consultation companies, nineteen entrepreneur enterprises and six supervising firms are involved in completing this titanic mission.
The Waad headquarters can be assimilated to a bee cell. Directors, architects and workers spend extra work hours aiming at fulfilling the Pledge by the end of 2009.
To date, Waad has repaired more than 105 of the 150 partially destroyed buildings with all 1,470 families moved back in.
Concerning the totally damaged structures, Kazma's building was the first fruit of the Waad project; seven others are to be handed within less than two months, fifty six are still under construction and twenty three have their footings ready.
With all their ambition, the directors of Waad list difficulties that might hinder the project. The then unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora did not pay 1553 apartments of the 5288 their down payments and none of the residents has received the second payment. Parallel to the unconstitutional government's obstruction in delivering compensations, a second problem emerged. The cost of building materials has been increasing fast. "The estimated expenditure of the project (U.S. $370 million) increased and the main reason is the escalating prices of construction materials," explains one of the directors.
Waad has proved to be unique in reconstruction. In addition to modernization and structural improvements, the Waad team has been responding to residents in requests related to the interior design of their future homes. Residents can choose their coating and floor tiles from a list of twenty items.
Mortada's family is only a sample of thousands others who have returned to their homes by the fulfillment of the divine victory; Waad's Pledge.
