The most prominent challenges of rebuilding Derna after the hurricane disaster

Cairo: «Middle East»
The political division that Libya is experiencing imposes itself on the issue of rebuilding the city of Derna (east), which was struck by torrents and caused great damage to lives and private and public property.

Hurricane Daniel swept through Derna and other cities in eastern Libya on September 9, killing 4,352 people, according to the latest international reports, while 8,000 are still missing, amid ongoing searches for them by their families and loved ones.

The conflict over power in Libya between the governments of Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba and Osama Hammad was reflected in the reconstruction file of Derna, but the latter, assigned by the House of Representatives, took steps towards rebuilding the city, in light of the presence of a number of challenges, most notably “the lack of coordination between the authorities.”

Both governments are working individually on the reconstruction file, but Derna, which is under the control of the eastern Libyan authority, has allowed it to deal quickly with the crisis, as it established a fund for the reconstruction of the city and the affected cities and regions, and appointed Al-Qasim, the son of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, as director. Its executive. It has been noted that there is new construction in Derna being conducted by the Fund, after it signed contracts with some of the most prominent contracting companies in the Arab world, including the UAE’s Global Contracting and the Egyptian Arab Contractors.

An international report stated that the torrential floods that Libya witnessed constituted a climate and environmental catastrophe, requiring $1.8 billion for reconstruction and recovery.

The report, issued by the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union, on Wednesday evening, said that the disaster affected about 1.5 million people, or 22 percent of Libya’s population, and referred to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which confirms the killing of 4,352 people, while 5 thousand are still missing.

The international report also indicated that “limited accountability and capacity” of Libyan institutions “constitute a major challenge to recovery processes,” while weak coordination between competing authorities is expected to affect “directing, managing, disbursing, and monitoring the funds necessary to restore things to what they were.”

However, the authorities of eastern Libya, represented by the Hammad government and the General Command, promised more than once to restore Derna to “better than it was before the hurricane,” and a source from the Reconstruction Fund told Asharq Al-Awsat that the construction and restoration work on many facilities in Derna is “evidence.” “There is a real achievement taking place on the ground, far from fake promises.”

The “Derna, Cities and Affected Regions Reconstruction Fund” signed a package of huge projects in the city of Derna, with the Emirati company, which includes infrastructure work and renovation, the establishment of sewage treatment plants, two seawater desalination plants, the construction of dams, in addition to the implementation of the breakwater project that preserves… On the coastal front of the city. The agreements with the Arab Contractors Company also included the construction of new bridges at the western entrance to the city of Derna.

The Public Prosecution arrested 14 officials pending investigations, including the mayor of Derna, and some officials from the city’s water resources and dams authority. A red notice was also issued against defendants fleeing Libya.

The Public Prosecutor, Al-Siddiq Al-Sour, had confirmed that the total number of deaths recorded until January 5 of this year, due to floods in Derna, had reached 4,540 people, including 3,964 Libyans and 576 foreigners. He said that investigations “showed that the drainage system in the valley It was not working as designed due to the accumulation of silt without any maintenance, in addition to detecting cracks in the structure of the two dams in the city of Derna.

Estimates indicate that the material damage and losses resulting from floods in Derna and other cities, as a result of Hurricane Daniel, amounted to $1.65 billion, while the international report confirmed that the floods destroyed or damaged more than 18,500 homes, which initially led to the displacement of about 44,800 people. , including 16 thousand children.

Al-Fatayeh University in Derna
According to observers, there are no clear efforts by the interim national “unity” government, headed by Dabaiba, while its rival in eastern Libya, led by Hammad, is racing against time with the aim of “returning prosperous Derna to its former state,” according to an official with the Reconstruction Fund.

Hammad’s government previously organized an international conference in early November 2023 for the reconstruction of Derna, with the participation of 400 participants and more than 260 foreign and Arab companies. Meanwhile, the General Authority for Research and Identification of Missing Persons says that its teams continue to take DNA samples from the families of victims of Hurricane Daniel in Derna, in coordination with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in order to inventory the missing persons and determine their identities.