Saudi Arabia launches Damascus area reconstruction project

Damascus: Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday humanitarian projects for Syria including the removal of wartime rubble around Damascus, weeks after inking investment deals worth billions to help rebuild the country's infrastructure.

The kingdom has been a major backer of the new Syrian government, which came to power after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Al Assad in December.

At an event Sunday in Damascus, the Saudi state-run King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) announced an aid package that includes a project to clear more than 75,000 cubic metres of rubble from the capital and its surroundings.

The Saudi organisation's president Abdullah Al Rabeeah and Syrian minister for emergencies and disaster management Raed Al Saleh signed an agreement for the initiative, which includes plans to recycle at least 30,000 cubic metres of debris from destroyed homes and other buildings.

School reconstruction

Saleh said the rubble hinders humanitarian efforts and reconstruction, and that unexploded "war remnants threaten the lives of civilians".

Other agreements inked on Sunday would see Riyadh support the reconstruction of 34 schools in Syria's Aleppo, Idlib and Homs provinces, as well as provide equipment for 17 hospitals nationwide, help rebuild some 60 bakeries, and rehabilitate sewage and water infrastructure in Damascus.

KSrelief chief Rabeeah said that the projects seek to "address several high-priority areas of urgent needs" and "alleviate the suffering of affected people".

Since Assad's overthrow in December, Syria's new authorities have worked to attract investment for the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed in the country's 14-year civil war.

In late July, Riyadh pledged $6.4 billion in investment and partnership deals with Syria.

The war devastated much of Syria's infrastructure, with UN estimates putting the cost of reconstruction at more than $400 billion.