Muscat: Oman will rebuild 328 homes that were completely destroyed by the recent tropical cyclone Shaheen.
Announcing the reconstruction plans, Sultan bin Salem Al Habsi Oman’s Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for the Assessment of Tropical Damage, said that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning has been assigned to start the process.
The regions that were worst hit by the cyclone were the North and South Batinah, that included towns like Sohar Shinas, Khaboura, Saham, Suwaiq and Liwa, Rustaq, Nakhal, Barkha, Musannah. Other regions like Dhahira, Muscat and Buraimi were also affected.
Al Habsi said that the 80 falajs and five dams were affected by the cyclone, the repair work of which has been awarded through a tender that would repair 24 falajs and two dams. “The repair work on the remaining would be awarded once the technical details are finalised.”
Falaj is a system of irrigation that is widely prevalent for farming and also for pure water distribution in many areas, mainly interior towns in Oman. Many falaj sites in Oman are Unesco preserved world heritage sites and are well maintained by the government. The Ministry of Agricultural Wealth, Fisheries and Water Resources has also been assigned to study and provide report about protection dams for valley streams. Roads to residential localities and homes that have been washed away in these places are getting restored with temporary make-shift arrangements as processes for long-term solution are getting expedited.
