Slowly but surely, Southern villages are making progress on reconstruction

Source: AFP, 16-2-2007
AITA AL-SHAAB: Amid the ruins lining Aita al-Shaab`s main street, breezeblock homes are rising to give new life to this Southern town devastated during last year`s war with "Israel". The mostly Shiite community has been turned into a vast building site, criss-crossed by trucks carrying cement. "The town should be rebuilt in less than a year," said Mayor Tayssir Srour.
Most inhabitants have now returned to Aita al-Shaab, a market town of 12,000 situated close to the "Israeli" border, albeit living piled into the few remaining intact buildings as reconstruction proceeds apace.
Srour said $14 million has already been donated to his municipality by the gas-rich Gulf emirate of Qatar.
"Qatar gave an initial handout of $10,000 for most of the 350 homes that were damaged and should soon start to give money to the 650 other homes that were destroyed," he said.
Along with Aita al-Shaab, the emirate has promised to pay for the reconstruction of Bint Jbeil, Khiam and Ainata - some of the towns hardest hit by a month of "Israeli" bombardment.
But Aita al-Shaab`s metamorphosis is exceptional amid the scenes of ruin along the frontier, where many villages are still awaiting handouts promised by the Lebanese government.
"About 50 municipalities haven`t yet received a penny of the foreign aid that is supposed to be distributed by the government," said Qabalan Qabalan, in charge of sharing out state aid in South Lebanon, scene of most of the fighting.
"We`ve distributed $85 million, but $750 million is needed just to rebuild the houses," he said, pointing out that hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid have gone into the state`s coffers since the end of the war.
The village of Maroun al-Ras, on a plateau looking over "Israel", is one such village that has seen little in the way of government aid.
A recently finished World Bank-financed road leads into the village that is itself nothing but ruins, bar the occasional mosque already rebuilt by Qatar.
Only Jihad al-Binaa, the construction branch of Hizbullah, "has given any money," said the town`s treasurer, Mohammad Bazzi.
Rana Alawiye, her husband and two children have found refuge in a temporary home, complete with freshly plastered-over shrapnel holes in the walls, along with five other families.
"We received $3,000 in emergency aid with which we will start rebuilding our house," said Rana. "But to survive we can only count on our friends and family. My husband is an electrician, but work is scarce."
Even among towns benefiting from Qatari aid, Aita al-Shaab is an exception, with rebuilding generally proceeding at a slow pace.
"We`ll need two or three years, probably more," said a Lebanese engineer working for Qatar who asked not to be identified in print.
In Bint Jbeil, where more than 1,100 houses were destroyed in the town center alone, a completely new urban blueprint is needed before reconstruction can begin.
Qatar opted to give its aid directly to the people, bypassing state channels for the sake of speed and transparency.
"But in this region where the Lebanese state has been absent for decades, it can be very difficult to establish property rights," said the engineer. He said Qatar`s involvement was a paradox because "a foreign state is here to rebuild, in a country where the state is absent."