(Eqtsad)- After an absence of more than 50 years, stone and clay dwellings and houses have remerged in conjunction with the regime forces destroying many buildings and houses in Daraa province.
“Mud and stone houses emerged in the past two years in several places in Daraa province, especially in the camps for the displaced and agricultural areas where some residents settled, to escape the regime force bombing,” said Abu Mohammad al-Deraawi.
The stone and mud houses began to appear as alternative option to living in tents that are no longer viable because of their age and deterioration as a result of weather conditions.
Abu Thaer, 48, displaced from the countryside of Daraa al-Owsat and now living in Zizoun refugee camp in the western countryside of Daraa, said that the living conditions in the camp are terrible especially during the winter.
Winter time is a major concern for many of the displaced although it is a season of goodness due to all the suffering that accompanies it. During winter assistance and services decline and poverty of camp residents increases.
“In winter, the camp turns into pools of water and mud which all the residents are unable to prevent with their modest potential,” Abu Thaer said, adding that the cold is entering the tents from everywhere where it gnaws at the bones of adults before children. The tents become mere cloth that keep out neither the heat nor the cold.”
In the face of these circumstances, some people resorted to their experience in manufacturing clay molds and using in construction as an emergency solution to replace tents.
Abu Thaer pointed out that one of the residents of the camp manufactured several rectangular iron molds at a local blacksmith. The molds are 45 cm long, about 25 cm wide and 20 cm height. He started using the molds to manufacture mortar, which consists of mud and hay.
The two substances are mixed together and then placed under the sun for several days to dry. The bricks are then used to build a block style house. Abu Thaer explained that the roof of these houses are usually made from metal and mud or the remains of tents which do not keep out the cold but these houses are still warmer than living in tents.
Imad al-Qassim, 40, a construction worker who has made a profession out of constructing these stone and mud houses, indicated that some of the displaced people who had spent so much time in the camps started asking for the stone and mud houses to be constructed. He pointed that he was building some stone houses based on his previous experience as a construction worker on the Maamarji bloc.
Some of the displaced who fled to their farmlands away from their places of residence, resorted to constructing such houses, because the land belongs to them, according to al-Qassim.
The estimated cost of constructing a stone and clay room is between between 75,000 and 100,000 Syrian Pounds depending on the room dimensions.
Al-Qassim pointed out that this estimated cost includes the manufacturing of the bricks, transporting the bricks, the cost of the materials used to manufacture the roof of the structure, and wages of construction workers. He explained that some displaced families resort to building these houses so they can stop paying high rent for houses.
Haji Mahmoud al-Issa, 75, noted that mud and stone houses are not new in Deraa countryside. They were the most common forms of residence for people in Deraa countryside in the 1950s and 1960s, but residents stopped relying on these construction techniques and structures with the appearance of cement and quarried stone. However due to “Bashar al-Assad’s criminal acts,” they have been forced once more to build these structures.
“These houses are easy to build and their materials are available in nature. They do not need a lot of professional knowledge, they are very economical, and they are a suitable alternative to cement houses when the financial means are not available. They are better than the tents in withstanding the weather conditions as they are cold in summer and warm in winter.” He continued, “these houses only need long iron bars and reeds for the roof and these can be found in valleys and earth which is available everywhere.”
Haj Mahmoud said, “these houses require special attention and continuous restoration work before the onset of winter because of erosion and cracking due to the successive weather conditions.” He confirmed that these houses are safe to live in and said that the evidence is the existence of some stone and clay houses for decades in many of the villages in rural Deraa.
Haj Mahmoud added, “the al-Assad regime, in his war against the Syrian people, not only returned people to living in clay and stone houses, but also forced them to use primitive tools and means which were considered almost extinct before the revolution.”
It is noteworthy that hundreds of displaced families in the countryside of Daraa, Damascus and Quneitra and some families from Idlib and Homs, still live in camps for the displaced and random camps distributed in several areas in southern Syria.
The most well-known is the camp in Zizoun, and there are some in the border areas with Jordan. The tents and dwellings in the camps lack the most basic elements necessary for human habitation.
Eqtsad
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