Destruction, Poor Services and Lack of a Reconstruction Plan Hinder the Return to Darayya

After years of displacement and destruction in the city of Darayya, a suburb of Damascus, the return of displaced residents remains limited due to widespread devastation, weak public services, and the absence of a clear government plan for reconstruction. Despite some individual restoration efforts that began in 2019, obstacles persist, making the process of bringing life back to the city complex and arduous.

Lack of services

Even in areas that have seen partial returns, the city suffers from an almost complete collapse of its infrastructure. Roads remain filled with rubble, hindering movement and restoration efforts. Water is pumped from the Ayn Al-Fijeh spring to Darayya for only two hours a week, yet it does not reach some neighbourhoods due to the deteriorating network. 

Electricity is available for just one hour every 12 hours, forcing residents to rely on modest solar power systems or subscribe to the costly private generators “amperes service,” where each ampere costs SYP 11,000. 

Meanwhile, telecommunications have worsened due to the theft of network towers, leading to poor coverage and deteriorating internet services.

Neighbourhoods turned to rubble

For some residents, simply finding their former homes has become impossible. Hussein Alwan, a former resident of the Khaleej neighbourhood, recently returned to the area but was unable to identify where his house once stood. “When I looked around, all I saw was a massive pile of rubble – there were no landmarks indicating that homes once existed here,” he said.

The Khaleej neighbourhood, adjacent to the Mazzeh Military Airport, was home to informal housing. However, as battles intensified in late 2012, regime forces rigged the entire area with explosives to expand the airport’s security perimeter, leading to its complete destruction between 2012 and 2014.

In recent days, dozens of property owners in the neighbourhood gathered in front of the ruins, demanding that the new authorities find a solution for their destroyed properties. Their biggest shock was the scale of the devastation – no trace remained of their former homes, which had been completely levelled. The protesters described their movement as a “wake-up call” to push for an urban planning solution for the area, given the uncertainty surrounding its future.

Engineering committee’s report 

In the Al-Jamiyat Al-Inshaiyya neighbourhood, residents are still unable to return, as engineering committees formed in 2020 have yet to complete safety assessments for all buildings, leaving the fate of properties uncertain.

Saleh Shuaib, a property owner in the neighbourhood, finds himself caught between an engineering committee’s report declaring his home unfit for restoration and his personal desire to return and rehabilitate it himself. “My house is still standing despite the damage. The staircase is intact, and the floors are undamaged, yet they refuse to grant me a renovation permit,” he told The Syria Report

The neighbourhood is formally zoned, and its buildings are legally licensed, but it has been subject to widespread looting. Despite this, Saleh remains convinced that his apartment -whose façade was damaged by previous artillery shelling – can be restored. In any case, he is forced to wait, hoping that a more transparent committee will be formed, giving him the chance to rehabilitate his home.

Rebuilding without permit

In Ard Al-Marrah, near the Fashoukh neighbourhood, resident Fawaz Ksah recently returned from Jordan to settle in his home but faced significant challenges. The roads leading to his house are blocked by rubble, and basic services are absent. Nevertheless, he is determined to rehabilitate his home but remains torn between starting renovations without a permit, as some returnees have done, or waiting for official procedures.

Fawaz’s home, which he jointly owns with his wife under a “green tabu” title deed, sustained damage to its roof and walls due to the battles of 2016. While the flooring remains intact, the windows and doors were stolen, and a room that housed his library and some luxury furniture was burned.

The cost of restoring the house is estimated at around USD 5,000 if he chooses to refurbish it as it was before, but it could drop by half if he uses second-hand materials. Although dozens of residents have started restoration work without permits, Fawaz fears that the municipality may later demolish unlicensed homes.

Buying as an alternative

In some cases, residents have been forced to abandon the idea of restoring their original homes and seek alternatives. Among them is Jamal Saadi, who had no choice but to forget about his destroyed home in the Marrah area, west of the city, and opted to buy an apartment in the Shamiyat neighbourhood in 2020. “I found that the costs would be too high, and the easier option was to buy another apartment,” Mr Saadi told The Syria Report.

The apartment he purchased had been entirely looted by regime forces, leaving no trace of its previous interior, including kitchen fittings, electrical wiring, and plumbing. Its original owner, a Darayya native, found the cost of restoring it beyond his means and was forced to sell.

Mr Saadi took it upon himself to rehabilitate the apartment entirely at his own expense and without any external assistance.

Uncertain future

Despite some residents’ attempts to return to Darayya, the most heavily damaged neighbourhoods remain completely abandoned, awaiting new policies that could contribute to the city’s revival. While some rely on self-initiated restoration efforts, the core challenges remain: widespread destruction, a lack of services, and the absence of a clear reconstruction vision. 

For now, Darayya remains a city suspended between past and present, as its residents each attempt, in their own way, to reclaim what they lost amid the ruins of war.