MOSUL, Iraq – The governor of Nineveh says that destruction in the western side of Mosul caused by the ongoing war is 30 times higher than the eastern side of the city.
Speaking to reporters after the reopening of the Khazir bridge that connects Erbil to Mosul which was blown up byISIS in 2014, governor Nofal al-Hammad said many houses and government offices have been destroyed in Mosul.
“The damage in the right bank, compared to the left bank is 30 times more,” he said, “I mean here the destruction of the city’s infrastructure, the houses of the people, and the government offices.”
This comes as the Iraqi government estimates that the destruction in areas liberated from ISIS in the last three years to have cost up to $100 billion.
Mahdi al-Alaq, chief of staff at the Iraqi Prime Minister also told reporters that their estimates stands at billions of dollars of damage.
He said Iraq’s ministry of planning has presented to a “detailed and not exaggerated report” regarding the destruction in every aspects in Iraq.
“It estimated the costs of the damage done in all liberated areas at more than $50 billion, and some [other] estimates speak of $100 billion,” Alaq added.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in early January that “In the fight against ISIS, the group has damaged Iraq’s infrastructure by $35 billion."
In April, Iraq’s foreign minister asked the United States to develop a financial plan for the reconstruction of the country after ISIS, similar to a program developed for Western Europe after the Second World War.
In discussions with US Special Presidential Envoy to the coalition Brett McGurk, Ibrahim al-Jaafari stressed then the need for “collective support from the international community to contribute to the reconstruction of infrastructure after the defeat of terrorism,” a statement published by the Iraqi foreign ministry read.
Al-Jaafari suggested “the adoption of a project similar to the Marshall Plan which contributed to rebuilding Germany after the Second World War. He emphasized activating the strategic framework signed between Baghdad and Washington,” the statement continued.
The Marshall Plan, passed by Congress in 1948, saw the United States commit funds that eventually totaled over $12 billion (roughly $123 billion today) for the rebuilding of Western Europe ravaged by war.
The plan was adopted out of fear of Communist expansion amid economic hardship in the post-war years.
Photos: Rudaw/ Hunar Ahmad
