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Tremors in Salamieh and Lessons Learned from the 2023 Earthquake

17-09-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

The Hama governorate experienced several seismic tremors in August, the strongest of which occurred shortly after midnight on August 11 and 12, registering 5.3 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was in the village of Tal Al-Durra, near Salamieh, approximately 30 kilometres east of Hama. While these tremors did not result in the collapse of residential buildings, they caused material damage and cracks in homes.

As the tremor exceeded 5 on the Richter scale, Syria’s National Earthquake Centre classified it as an earthquake, and determined that it occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres beneath the surface. These tremors were reportedly caused by movements in the Palmyrene tectonic plate due to accumulated subterranean stress, with geological experts stating that they were indirectly linked to the February 6, 2023 earthquake.

Dozens of people were taken to Salamieh hospitals with fractures and bruises, mostly from jumping out of windows or falling while descending stairs. A local correspondent for The Syria Report noted that emergency teams from the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) set up tents and organised public shelters in parks immediately after the earthquake. Many affected in Salamieh are currently waiting for the AKDN to announce a programme to repair and reinforce their properties. They do not expect much support from the municipality, given its limited budget and its inability to handle tasks such as garbage collection and water supply to residents. The AKDN operates in several regions of Syria, particularly in areas inhabited by the Ismaili community. Salamieh’s population is estimated at around 200,000, most of whom are Ismailis.

Hama Governor Maen Sobhi told the semi-official newspaper Al-Watan on August 28 that the governorate had taken measures to address the impact of the tremors in Salamieh and its surrounding countryside, aiming to mitigate their damage. These measures included forming a public safety committee to inspect damaged buildings and increasing the readiness of disaster response institutions.

In a statement to the official news agency SANA, Salamieh City Council Chairwoman Souhad Zaidan explained that the public safety committee began its work the day after the earthquake. Additionally, the council formed a team of 39 engineers to assess the structural safety of the affected buildings. Mrs Zaidan noted that the council was coordinating with economic and civil organisations to provide alternative rental housing for the affected residents, with rent covered for a full year.

The governor told Al-Watan that 475 homes were damaged by the tremors across Hama Governorate, with 37 needing full evacuation and 152 requiring reinforcement and repairs. However, these figures are not compatible with what the chairwoman of the city council stated in the same article, published on August 28. She noted that the Salamieh city council had received over 900 requests for inspections in the city and had inspected around 750 homes. Of these, 38 percent (285 homes) were found to be safe but in need of minor repairs, 53 percent (398 homes) required reinforcement and repairs, and over 8.5 percent (64 homes) needed to be evacuated and demolished.

A correspondent for The Syria Report highlighted that the discrepancies in the figures given by officials could be seen as an attempt to exaggerate the damage in order to attract support from donor organisations. This appears to be one of the lessons learned by Syrian state institutions following the February 6, 2023 earthquake.

In the same statement to Al-Watan, the governor of Hama called on international donors to help repair the water and sewage systems in Salamieh and its surrounding countryside, and to improve wells and pumping networks to address the severe water crisis, despite the issue being unrelated to the August 12 earthquake. Salamieh and its surrounding areas are suffering from severe drought, with water sources such as wells and springs drying up. As a result, farming in the region has shifted to rain-fed agriculture due to the scarcity of irrigation water. Drinking water is pumped according to a strict rationing schedule, with supplies available for only a few hours every three days. Most residents are forced to buy drinking water from unregulated sources, sold via mobile tankers. The main water network is deteriorating due to lack of maintenance and failure to implement new projects in this sector.

Additionally, one municipal official told The Syria Report that most of the buildings in Salamieh classified as dangerous and in need of demolition were at risk of collapse even before the August 12 earthquake. This is often because the municipality did not issue renovation permits (officially known as reinforcement and partial rebuilding permits) for them. The refusal to grant renovation permits is due to two main reasons: either these buildings are not licensed and have unresolved building violations under Law No. 40 of 2012, with the municipality refusing to reconcile and instead calling for their demolition, or inheritance disputes prevent the subdivision of some properties, making it impossible to issue renovation permits. Most of these homes are old, some are made of mud, and a portion of them are abandoned.

Some of the homes classified as at risk of collapse after the August 12 earthquake were already marked for demolition. The municipality has been demanding their removal for years, as they were built without permits in areas designated for urban expansion west of the city under the expansion of the city’s zoning plan. The owners of these properties refuse to vacate them without compensation, particularly because the municipality has previously evicted and demolished some buildings there without compensating the residents. One such building is located near the branch office of the ruling Baath Party in the city, and the municipality wants to remove it because its location obstructs the expansion of a major road.

Demolition of Earthquake-Damaged Buildings Continues in Opposition-Held Areas of Rural Aleppo

23-07-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

The demolition and removal of buildings damaged by the February 6, 2023 earthquake is still ongoing in the city of Jandares, located in the Afrin region of northwestern rural Aleppo and controlled by the opposition’s Syrian Interim Government (SIG). Jandares suffered near-total destruction due to the earthquake, with approximately 800 people killed by the total collapse of 278 buildings and partial collapse of 1,100 buildings.

Legal challenges related to property ownership and documentation, as well as technical engineering difficulties in demolishing structurally unsound and unrepairable buildings and clearing the rubble have led to delays in the demolition process. This process requires the reparation of destroyed roads and service facility repairs in the city, which have not yet fully recovered from the earthquake’s impact.

AbdulRazzaq Al-Khatib, a volunteer engineer and chief of the Community Resilience Enhancement Programme at the Civil Defence, also known as White Helmets, told The Syria Report that the local council-led demolitions prioritise buildings within the urban area of cities and towns that pose an immediate threat to residents’ lives. Afterwards, they move on to buildings further from urban centres or those posing a lesser threat.

The local council in Jandares announced on its Facebook page on July 4 that its demolition and removal committee completed the demolition of building No. 3 in alley No. 205 in the old neighbourhood, which began on July 2. This building was severely damaged by the earthquake.

The demolition and removal committee includes three licensed engineers from the Aleppo branch of the Free Engineers Syndicate. The demolition was carried out based on the local council decision No. 34 issued on June 9, to ensure public safety. Additionally, on June 12, the committee demolished building No. 122 on Yalanqouz Street in the SalahEddin neighbourhood, based on the local council decision No. 24 issued on May 7.

According to Mr Khatib, there are still around 15 damaged buildings in the city, with five awaiting legal approval for demolition and 10 awaiting local council procedures. To date, the White Helmets teams have demolished 31 buildings, one mosque, one minaret, and one high water tank in Jandares.

The demolition and removal of damaged buildings involves a series of technical and legal procedures, according to a Syria Report correspondent. The first step is the sensory inspection and structural safety assessment of the damaged buildings, carried out by the comprehensive survey project committees. The Aleppo branch of the Free Engineers Syndicate launched the comprehensive survey project on February 16, 2023, which was undertaken by 27 committees comprising 64 engineers from the syndicate. These committees completed the comprehensive survey on July 15, 2023 and subsequently issued engineering reports recommending the demolition of buildings deemed severely damaged and at risk of collapse. These reports were referred to the public safety committees formed after the earthquake, which are affiliated with the councils of Jandares, Afrin, and Azaz in rural Aleppo.

The public safety committees then submitted their review of the reports to the local councils, which publish lists of buildings scheduled for demolition and allow owners to file objections within 72 hours. If an objection is filed with ownership documents, the local council assigns a specialised engineering committee to re-inspect the building. If the demolition decision is upheld, the owner can, at their own expense, request an external licensed engineering committee from the Engineers Syndicate to re-evaluate the structural safety of the building. If there is a disagreement between the committee reports, the case can be taken to court for resolution.

Once approved, building owners are notified to vacate the premises if inhabited, and neighbouring building owners are also notified for temporary evacuation to prevent damage during the demolition. The local council then forwards the demolition order to the demolition and removal committee, which supervises the operation carried out by the White Helmets teams, accompanied by the civil police.

Earthquake Victims Fund to Add New Category for Support Eligibility

20-02-2024/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

In recent days, the Board of Directors of the National Fund for Supporting Earthquake Victims reiterated its intention to add a third category, known as category C, eligible for support to compensate for their real estate losses.

The National Fund for Supporting Earthquake Victims was established by Legislative Decree No. 7 of 2023, aiming to provide financial support to help survivors overcome physical, material, or moral damage incurred by the February 6 earthquake. The Fund is part of Syria’s People First national action plan for the quake aftermath and will operate for three years. During this period, the Fund’s management is required to disburse the proceeds to the eligible victims.

According to its executive instructions, the support programme provided by the Fund includes compensation for owners of buildings destroyed at the moment of the earthquake on February 6 or in the aftershock that occurred on February 20, divided into two categories: Category A for destroyed properties located within licensed buildings in a zoned area, with owners being compensated by the Fund with SYP 160 million for rebuilding.

Category B pertains to unlicensed properties and buildings, whether in a zoned area or not. The owners are entitled to apply for housing within the government housing projects for earthquake victims constructed by the General Housing Establishment (GHE). These beneficiaries receive financial support of SYP 40 million paid directly by the Fund to the GHE, with the possibility of obtaining a loan from the Real Estate Bank under Decree No. 3 of 2023, equivalent to the remaining amount of the housing unit’s value. Decree No. 3 of 2023 provides earthquake victims with tax exemptions, some of which relate to their completely or partially demolished properties.

The new C category, expected to be added soon to the list of those eligible for support from the Fund, encompasses owners of properties that were destroyed after the earthquake or are to be demolished based on decisions made by the governorates due to the structural unsafety of these properties and the impossibility of reinforcing them. The C category includes owners of licensed properties located in zoned areas and unlicensed ones in both zoned and unzoned areas.

The first mention of the third category C was during a meeting of the Fund’s board of directors on December 17, 2023. This was reiterated during the board’s first meeting in 2024 on February 4, coinciding with the anniversary of the earthquake disaster. The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Hussein Arnous, with members including the Ministers of Public Works and Housing, Local Administration and Environment, the Governors of Lattakia and Aleppo, and Firas Kallas, the General Director of the Fund’s board of directors.

At the latest meeting, members confirmed that work is ongoing to develop mechanisms and criteria to set up the third category within the Fund’s database without specifying a final date for beginning to receive applications according to these criteria. No final figures were released during the meeting regarding the number of damaged properties that have been or are expected to be demolished, which could qualify their owners to apply for support under category C. Furthermore, no reliable data leaked regarding the value of the support allocated for this category of victims nor the conditions for support.

The meeting on February 4 also presented the Fund’s accomplishments over the past year, including its contribution to damage assessment, building evaluations, and the creation of a database collected from support applicants and other official entities’ operation rooms.

In all cases, the number of victims the Fund has agreed to support is relatively modest, primarily due to the difficulty many victims face in proving property ownership. According to its officials, the registered individuals whom the Fund has agreed to support number 1,378 victims across three governorates: Lattakia, Aleppo, and Hama. Of these, 841 individuals are from Category A and 537 from Category B. A total of SYP 156 billion were allocated to support both categories through the Fund, and financial support has so far been provided to 381 victims, amounting to SYP 20 billion. Only 52 victims have received construction permits to rebuild their collapsed homes.

Although the number of buildings that collapsed due to the earthquake in both Aleppo and Lattakia governorate is almost equal, with an average of 50 fully collapsed buildings each, Lattakia’s share of the funds earmarked by the Fund is SYP 116 billion, of which SYP 16 billion have been distributed to 312 victims from both categories. Meanwhile, Aleppo’s share did not exceed SYP 34 billion, with about SYP 4 billion of it distributed to 57 victims from both categories. While the share of Hama governorate did not exceed SYR 6 billion, but it was not disclosed what amount had been distributed so far.

Tallying the Damages from the February 6 Earthquake

07-03-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

During a March 2 meeting chaired by the Minister of Local Administration and Environment, Syria’s Higher Relief Committee stated that the earthquake had impacted 414,304 people in Syria.

The committee added that 4,444 buildings were unsafe for return and could not be reinforced, while 29,751 buildings needed reinforcement work to be safe. There were 30,113 buildings deemed safe but needing maintenance work and 292 buildings that had been demolished to protect public safety. This survey was conducted in coordination with structural safety teams and technical assistance committees.

During a parliamentary session on February 20, the Minister of Local Administration and Environment said that 199 buildings collapsed during the earthquake.

The affected governorates

It appears from the figures reported by each governorate separately that the number of damaged buildings at risk of collapse is vast and is incommensurate with the number of buildings that collapsed at the moment of the earthquake and that their total is greater than the numbers reported by the Higher Relief Committee. It is also difficult to precisely determine whether all these buildings were damaged by the February 6 earthquake or had suffered previous damages.

Aleppo

The semi-official Al-Watan newspaper published a report on February 27 about the Higher Relief Committee’s branch in Aleppo governorate, stating that the body had examined 11,277 buildings. Of those, 8,600 were deemed structurally sound, while 2,677 were structurally unsound due to the earthquake.

In a February 19 press conference, the Aleppo governorate stated that 53 buildings had collapsed due to the earthquake; The Syria Report found that 50 buildings were located in formerly opposition-held parts of east Aleppo city and many were uninhabited and already at risk of collapse. The other three collapsed buildings were old and in poor condition and located in central Aleppo city. No building collapses were recorded in the city’s western neighbourhoods, which remained relatively protected from armed conflict during the war.

Before the earthquake, most of the buildings that risked falling in Aleppo had previously been damaged by fighting. In November 2022, the Aleppo City Council demolished some of the 1,500 buildings at risk of collapse. These buildings had faced regime bombing damage during the period of opposition control over that part of the city in 2012-2016.

Lattakia

In a March 2 press conference by the Relief Operations Room in Lattakia governorate, the governor said that 27,641 buildings had been inspected. Some 967 buildings had been completely damaged and could not undergo reinforcement work.

According to preliminary official figures issued in the first days after the quake, around 50 buildings in the Lattakia governorate collapsed fully and another 50 buildings partially. On February 14, The Syria Report wrote that at least 50 buildings in the governorate had fully collapsed, including at least 16 in Lattakia city alone.

Hama

According to the Hama branch of the Higher Relief Committee and its operations room, by February 27, the governorate had inspected 38,000 homes and shops. Of those, 2,000 buildings were at risk of collapse and required evacuation. Many buildings were deemed safe but had cracks and needed restoration work.

These numbers appear quite extensive and don’t match the only four buildings recorded to have collapsed in Hama during the earthquake. Two of those buildings were in Hama city, one of which was uninhabited, while the other two were in the rural part of the governorate. One apparent explanation is that the Hama governorate classified all buildings that failed to meet structural safety standards as buildings that were damaged in the quake.

Tartous

A source in Tartous governorate told Al-Watan on February 28 that engineering teams had, to date, inspected 4,000 buildings. Of those buildings, 117 were homes that needed to be demolished and 587 needed reinforcement.

Dozens of old homes had partially collapsed in the area around Al-Qadmous Castle due to the earthquake. Other homes in the main souk of Baniyas city also faced damage.

Earthquake-Related Damage in Rural Aleppo Governorate

28-02-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

The recent earthquake caused extensive damage to parts of the Aleppo governorate under the control of various armed opposition, including Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).

This article will delve into the impacts of the earthquake on Souran, Al-Atareb and Afrin and the reasons behind the damages in the cities.

Souran

Souran, located north of the city of Aleppo, has remained under opposition control since 2012, though it did not witness heavy regime bombardment or fighting relative to other parts of the country. The earthquake killed 33 people in Souran after they were trapped under the rubble of their homes. More than half of them were displaced people from rural parts of the Idlib governorate, while the rest were originally from the city.

According to an official from the Souran Local Council, which is affiliated with the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government, the earthquake destroyed 80 buildings, including some single-storey homes that were built more than 40 years ago. However, most buildings that fully collapsed were constructed within the past decade and had multiple storeys. Some 110 buildings in Souran are at risk of collapse from the earthquake and require demolition, while 180 buildings were partially damaged and need restoration work. In addition, four mosques, two main water cisterns, and six schools, including a Quran school, were badly damaged.

Most of the buildings that were damaged, whether fully or partially, were constructed without licences, according to the local council official. The council had become unable to control the rapid trend of informal construction.

The Souran Local Council did not open any shelter centres after the earthquake, but did receive some aid, including tents, from NGOs operating in opposition territory. The council distributed these tents to those in need, who set them up in front of their damaged homes. The city came to resemble an encampment.

The area’s brittle soil and the lack of a rocker layer near the surface are one of the main reasons why these homes collapsed. Souran is in an arid region; its soil is around 20 metres thick. The most suitable houses for such an environment are one-storey homes with adequately studied and reinforced concrete foundations. In practice, however, such homes are more expensive to build, which many residents and displaced people in the area cannot afford, especially after years of war and the country’s acute economic crisis.

Afrin

The city of Afrin is located in the northwestern part of Aleppo governorate and is the administrative centre of its region. The entire area had been controlled by the majority-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from 2012 until 2018 before Turkish-backed opposition forces seized the area during Operation Olive Branch. The fighting displaced a large portion of the area’s original Kurdish residents. Afrin Local Council is currently responsible for the city administratively and services and is affiliated with the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government.

Contrary to what happened in the rural town of Jandares in Afrin, which saw the most severe earthquake damage in Syria’s opposition-held areas, only four residential buildings fully collapsed in Afrin city. As a result, 16 people were killed. In addition, 204 buildings saw extensive damage that made them uninhabitable and at risk of collapse. Another 3,458 buildings were partially damaged and needed reinforcement and restoration work, according to a local council official who spoke with The Syria Report.

Most of the damage in Afrin city was concentrated along Sharaa Al-Faylat, a relatively newly constructed area that saw unlicensed construction during the period of YPG control. After 2018, contractors with close ties to opposition factions worked to expand the unlicensed construction in this area of the city, including vertical expansion by building additional storeys to existing buildings.

The earthquake displaced 3,500 families to 40 shelter centres and tented encampments within the city and its outskirts, which the local council had set up. Some shelter centres and camps can accommodate 300 families, while others are only big enough for 30-40 families. Other families set up camps near their houses.

Al-Atareb

Al-Atareb is among the largest cities in the rural western Aleppo governorate and is located near the administrative border with Idlib. The city is controlled by the HTS-affiliated Syrian Salvation Government (SSG).

Regime forces have waged repeated aerial and artillery bombardment campaigns on Al-Atareb since 2013. The most infamous massacre there was carried out by Russian forces, which fired highly destructive missiles on the city’s centre, including its souk, in late 2017. Over 100 civilians were killed in the attack, and dozens of residential and commercial buildings were destroyed. Many other buildings that remained intact were nevertheless cracked. Regime forces also hit the city hard during its final military campaign in the area in 2019-2020.

In addition to the direct damage to urbanisation and infrastructure, the bombing also caused indirect damage, represented by the disturbance of the soil and the foundations of buildings, which helps to explain the severe impact of the earthquake on the city. During the quake, 200 buildings fully collapsed, including single-storey houses and multi-storey apartment blocks. Another 300 buildings partially collapsed. The damage killed around 250 people and injured 500.

Hundreds of impacted families headed to nearby shelter centres set up by the SSG, while others left the city and went to camps located further north along the border with Turkey (most of the latter were previously displaced families not originally from Al-Atareb). Most city residents set up tents near their partially and fully damaged homes, as well as in public squares and streets. Non-governmental, local initiatives played the most significant role in distributing aid to those impacted by the quake, according to The Syria Report’s correspondent in the area.

Syria’s Public Safety Committees After the Earthquake

21-02-2023/in HLP, News /by Rand Shamaa

After the devastating earthquake on February 6, 2023, hundreds of public safety committees tasked with assessing the structural safety of damaged and cracked buildingswere were established in regime-controlled parts of Syria. However, it appears these committees have been disorganised due to differences in affiliation, powers, and the geographical areas they cover.

Local Administration Law No. 107 of 2011 says administrative unit councils have the right to form a number of different permanent and temporary committees to perform certain duties. These committees, often known as public safety committees, may include council members or other individuals and often fall into several different categories depending on their specialisation.

Among these committees include those specialised in engineering, which issue structural safety reports for buildings or the proportion of destruction in a given area. These committees may be structural safety committees, technical committees, structural coherence committees, construction and urbanisation committees or damaged building assessment committees. There is no unified set of criteria for naming these committees or delineating their tasks.

Some of these committees existed before the earthquake. Local administrative units, especially those in areas previously damaged by conflict-related fighting, relied on these commitees to determine the degree of risk of damaged buildings and provide recommendations to remove, reinforce, or preserve these buildings.

By February 20, there were 100 such committees in each of the Aleppo and Lattakia governorates and 65 in the Hama governorate, according to statements by the Minister of Public Works and Housing. The committees examined around 22,000 buildings in Lattakia, 12,000 in Aleppo, and 7,000 in Hama. Not all new committees belong to local administrative units. Some are affiliated with syndicates, government ministries, NGOs, or universities. Some are a mixture of the above, and include members of various prior entities.

The most important of these newly formed committees are mixed. Named “structural safety teams” by the Minister of Public Works and Housing, they include members from the governorate branches of the Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate (SES), engineering consultants for the Ministry of Housing’s General Company for Engineering Studies (GCES), and members of the already exist structural safety committees. On February 13, the minister told state-owned newspaper Tishreen on February 13 that these teams are geographically spread out in earthquake-affected areas.

He called on citizens wishing to check on the structural safety of their homes to consult with these teams through their governorate councils.

According to the minister, these teams are working to inventory and assess the damage to all government and residential facilities and provide technical support and engineering advice on structural safety. The minister added that another of the teams’ duties is to present a separate report for each governorate on the scale of damages and any needed recommendations.

The GCES general manager told Tishreen on February 16 that the company had put together a working guide for the structural safety teams, with the goal of rapid initial assessment of structural safety of residential and public buildings affected by the earthquake, as well as their usability. The teams would also submit any necessary forms for collecting data. Consequently, the teams examined hundreds of buildings in Lattakia, Aleppo, Hama, Tartous and Damascus governorates. They evacuated buildings at risk of collapse and identified which structures could be restored.

Meanwhile, some of the new inspection committees were formed in coordination between the SES and the Syria Trust for Development, headed by Bashar al-Assad’s wife Asma al-Assad.

Engineering department teachers at Tishreen University in Lattakia also formed committees to inspect cracked homes at the homeowners’ requests. Al-Baath University in Homs also created its own inspection committees to check on its university buildings and residential units. The Ministry of Education put together committees to inspect school buildings and assess any damage, white various civil initiatives, including volunteer engineers, formed committees to check affected structures.

These newly formed committees are similar to the old ones in that they perform field inspections of buildings in affected areas, determine the status of each building and provide recommendations to administrative units to leave the buildings alone, restore, evacuate or demolish them.

Many people staying in shelters in Aleppo and Lattakia after leaving their cracked homes are still waiting for the committees to visit their houses and assess the risks.

These assessments have short-term impacts on citizens regarding whether they remain in the shelter centres or return to their homes. According to official statements, committees in governorates affected by the earthquake have received tens of thousands of requests to inspect cracked homes.

The committees seal the buildings at risk of collapse while waiting for administrative unit demolition crews to demolish them and sweep away the rubble. Sealing a building involves placing a sign with red wax warning residents not to return home.