(Eqtsad)- Abu Hassan, a janitor in the city of Douma northeast of the capital, was unable to escape the job opportunity he had found in the local council's municipal services office a year ago.
“Due to the blockade enforced by regime on Douma and the difficult economic conditions imposed on us by the Syrian regime, I submitted a job application form in the services office to work on cleaning the residential neighborhoods in Douma. I did not see that this is as a shameful job, but on the contrary it is a decent profession that earns a good income until economic conditions improve," Abu Hassan tells Eqtsad.
He concluded, “I advise everyone who can work not to hesitate in that because alternative institutions of the regime worked to the maximum capacity to fill the vacuum left by regime institution."
After the liberation of the Eastern Ghouta in late 2012, all governmental institutions (all medical services) ceased to do service. The Syrian regime withdrew the foundations that people might have built upon. Many people with expertise in various academic disciplines assumed responsibility for organizing the services in until the establishment of local councils in early 2013, in order to organize efforts and consolidate them within its frameworks and work on its development.
Later, the unified services office in al-Ghouta began its work on 09/02/2013 through periodic meetings of the Secretariat to determine the tasks, responsibilities and scope of work. The council went on to carry out individual efforts work such as cleaning campaigns and repairing parts of electricity networks, attempts to activate the public water network, according to engineer Bassam Zaitoun Director of the Office of unified services in the Eastern Ghouta.
Zaitoun added that as a result of the depletion of resources, the office management communicated with funding organizations of the service sector projects to inform them of the seriousness of the low services in the region and their negative effects on the population and public health and convince them of the importance of financing service projects. The office was able to obtain funding to implement several projects like water projects, renewable energy projects, transportation project, and sewage projects.
When there was a cleaning project carried out by the Directorate at the level of Al-Ghouta, there were salaries for cleaning workers set as 90 $ per worker. With the completion of the project, which lasted for a full year, each local council according to its potential pay salaries paid for cleaners, and therefore we see a difference in salaries according to the resources of each local council of the cities of Ghouta.
"The high prices and the lack of projects on a continuous basis lead to the interruption of service delivery, and the volume of service work at al Ghouta is very large and needs financial resources," Zaitoun concluded by referring to the most important problems facing the services sector in Gauta. The bombardment of the cities of Ghouta is also disruptive and is causing great pressure on workers during their work.
To talk more accurately about the salaries of service workers in some of the cities of Ghouta, we met with Mr. Kamal Altaklah, President of the local council of the town of Masrba, who confirmed that the Office of Services in the Council is currently suffering great lack of financial support, and that is why the number of cleaners is small. The number of workers with the supervisor and the director does not exceed 12 employees, and the town needs double this number.
Mr. Kamal revealed that the monthly cash balance on the services office expenses is about one and a half million, equivalent to 3500 US dollars. This is the sum of salaries of workers and office staff, as well as the regular maintenance of machinery and equipment, as well as the fuel needed to run the vehicles. He added, the salary of one worker does not exceed 50$ dollars per month and this salary is enough for a family of five people for one week only."
"There is no one who has fully embraced the work or even part of it, and there is only some simple and immediate assistance. We overcome these problems through the spirit of teamwork and a strong sense of religious and moral responsibility towards our society and our country.. "
we found that there is a huge difference in the salaries of cleaners in different towns and cities. In the city of Saqba, the cleaning worker's salary is about $ 80 per month, according to Mr. Omar Zamzam, director of the services office in the local council of Saqba. Within the framework of a professional and deliberate plan of distribution of landfill activity on the city area to serve the residents, the number of these points is 35 containers of waste, in addition to that in the summer must be doubled significantly, because if garbage remains for a long time in this warm atmosphere will cause the spread of epidemics and diseases.
In all the actions carried out by the local councils, with or without the support of civil labor organizations, the most pressing question is why salaries vary in a given area for $ 50 per month, while in another area $ 125 per month, and they are in the same geographical area.
To answer this question, Professor Firas al-Marhoum, Director of the IHR office in Ghouta found that the reason for the disparity in the value of salaries is the lack of a single support sector for the services and hygiene sector in all the cities of Al-Ghouta. In Douma, for example, the city's only clean-up sector has been the IHR for more than 19 months. "We can not afford the rest of the towns due to limited support," and each town has its own arrangement.
"It is very unfair for all cleaners to see this disparity, and we hope that donors will increase their activities to include all the cities of Ghouta without exception, because this work is highly important beyond being charitable or developmental," he concluded. (Reporting by Mohamed Yaser)
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