Iraq's Ramadi retaken, but rebuilding it a huge task

Iraq has completely retaken Ramadi from the Islamic State group, but now faces the enormous challenges of removing bombs, reestablishing basic services and rebuilding the shattered city, officials said today.
Government forces recaptured areas on the eastern outskirts of the Anbar provincial capital from IS after weeks of fighting, and authorities say that all areas immediately surrounding the city have been retaken.
"All of Ramadi is now liberated" and responsibility for security is being handed over to local police, Anbar Governor Sohaib al-Rawi told journalists in Baghdad.
But the city's civilian population has been displaced, and "the biggest challenge before us is clearing the areas of mines" so residents can return, Rawi said, adding that he hopes to obtain international support to remove explosives.

Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said that clearing the city of explosives would cost an estimated USD 15 million.
"The key right now is to extract the IEDs (improvised explosive devices). This is the single largest, most difficult obstacle preventing people from coming home and rebuilding their lives," said Grande, speaking at a roundtable alongside Rawi.

But the city's problems go far beyond bombs.
"The level of destruction in Ramadi is as bad as anything we have seen anywhere in Iraq," Grande said.
"Houses are destroyed, bridges are destroyed, roads are infested with IEDs, water systems are ruined, schools are ruined, health centres are ruined and businesses are shut," she said.

Initial work will be in the Tamim area of southwestern Ramadi, and will include repairing the water system and six health centres, as well as providing six ambulances and dozens of generators, Grande said.
The second phase will focus on central Ramadi, and will include repairing water stations, bringing in three mobile electrical grids and connecting them to hundreds of generators, she said.
The UN has already secured the USD 10 million needed for the first phase, but the second will cost an additional USD 25 and USD 30 million, plus the cost of clearing explosives.
And even that is only the beginning: "Thousands of homes have to be rebuilt. Thousands of buildings have to be rebuilt," Grande said.

Rawi said that the provincial government had not received funds from Baghdad since the beginning of December, and that it will have to use part of its 2016 budget to pay debts from the previous year.