More than two years have passed since the Nahr Al Bared refugee camp (NBC) outside Tripoli was destroyed. The process of rebuilding it has been an extensive and thorough one, and members of the community have been worried about the slow pace. Not being too used to good news, some of them started to fear they might never see their homes rebuilt. Now the UNRWA is finally able to produce evidence, as the framework of brand new apartments is popping up near the old main road. Clearing of rubble and undetonated explosives has been among the reasons for it taking so long.
It is Package 1 that is now taking shape. Chosen to be the first part of the camp to be rebuilt because of its mix of commercial and apartment buildings. It is thus both a “camp in miniature” and the first brick in the economic recovery of the community. The package will consist of 145 buildings, housing 423 families, to an estimated cost of $ 26.6 million, funded by the international community. The laborers setting up the houses are themselves members of the camp community.
The rebuilt NBRC is modeled after the old one. This means the families will live in the same areas and neighborhoods they lived in the old camp. The families have been included in the process from the earliest planning on. They will thus also get homes better adjusted to their situation and preferences than they had before, for instance wheelchair adaption.
A best-case scenario would see the camp completely reconstructed some time in 2013.