Saudi NGO Funds Debris Removal in Rural Damascus

Syria’s Civil Defence is expected to begin debris removal operations in parts of Rural Damascus at the start of October, starting from the city of Darayya, under an agreement signed in early September between the Ministry of Emergency and Disaster Management and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre.

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre was established in Riyadh in 2015 and has been active in Syria on projects closely linked to housing, land, and property rights. In April 2023, it funded the rehabilitation of bakeries in Rural Damascus in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In May 2024, it announced a contribution through UNICEF to support water, sanitation and nutrition services, and in December 2024 it provided further support to strengthen basic healthcare services in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

This month, it launched a comprehensive package of projects in Syria in the fields of health, food security, environment, education and agriculture to support early recovery and lay the groundwork for population stabilisation.

According to the contract signed in September, approximately 75,000 cubic metres of debris will be removed in Rural Damascus (equivalent to around 170,000 tonnes, based on an average rubble density of roughly 2.3 tonnes per cubic metre). The operations will include debris scattered in roads, public facilities and some private properties. However, the contract did not clearly specify mechanisms for documenting property or safeguarding owners’ rights during the removal process. The total accumulated debris in Rural Damascus is estimated at about 6.9 million tonnes (around 3 million cubic metres), making the region one of the most heavily affected by concrete rubble in Syria, due to the lack of effective removal plans during the Assad regime, and the presence of largely destroyed areas such as Harasta, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and wide parts of Darayya.

The agreement includes debris removal to facilitate the return of displaced residents and to pave the way for the rehabilitation of public facilities such as schools and hospitals. Other parallel Saudi projects being implemented or prepared in other areas include: providing shelter, rehabilitating 715 homes damaged by the February 2023 earthquake in Azaz in Rural Aleppo, equipping 55 temporary housing units for the most affected families, and rehabilitating 30 bakeries in nine governorates.

Civil Defence Director Mounir Mustafa told The Syria Report that the current phase will involve transporting debris from Darayya to designated sites. The contract did not specify these sites, but Mr Mustafa explained that it provided for the establishment of a dedicated unit to manage the process, equipped with appropriate machinery for sorting and recycling the debris it receives. This unit is expected to process about 30,000 cubic metres, by crushing the debris to produce materials that can be reused for repairing road medians and pavements.

Metals extracted from the debris will be separated from the concrete and sent to specialised smelting plants. Negotiations are currently underway with several such plants on recycling mechanisms. Mr Mustafa did not name the plants, as contracts with them have not yet been finalised, but he indicated that the dedicated debris management unit would seek permanent solutions for this process.

Mr Mustafa confirmed that the removal of debris would include both public facilities and private properties. The municipalities are expected to obtain the consent of the rightful owners of damaged homes for the removal of debris. These owners will have to submit requests for debris removal to an engineering committee formed by the relevant municipality. This committee will assess the situation in the concerned area and submit its report to the municipality, which will in turn forward it to the governorate.

Debris removal from a damaged home is costly and may average around USD 1,000 (SYP 10 million). Civil Defence will carry out the removal using its own machinery without imposing any direct costs on the rightful owners, thereby alleviating the financial burden on those affected.

Although debris removal is, from an engineering perspective, a necessary step to prepare for reconstruction, its implementation without a comprehensive approach to property rights and overall recovery planning raises concerns about a repeat of previous experiences where residents were not genuinely involved or compensated, as occurred in several areas that underwent redevelopment or partial clearance under the previous regime or after its fall.

Debris management in the Syrian context carries highly sensitive legal and social dimensions. In previous experiences under the Assad regime, debris was often removed without clear documentation of the ownership of the demolished properties, without involving the rightful owners or notifying them of demolition decisions, and without compensating them for the debris. This has opened the door to the permanent loss of property, especially in informal settlements or in areas only partially damaged. In the absence of a reliable official database, removing rubble before rights are formally established increases the risk of unlawful appropriation of land or its redistribution on administrative grounds that disregard the rights of the original residents.

It remains unclear whether the current contract provides clear mechanisms for documentation or compensating property owners, as it contains no details on how ownership data will be recorded. This leaves legal gaps that could lead to disputes or the permanent loss of rights.