The Maarrat al-Nu’man Local Council, south of Idlib, has implemented a project to provide the city’s neighborhoods and streets with lighting, as to better the service and security condition there.
For two months, supported by “Development Program,” the local council has provided 800 positions on the city’s streets with lights, according to what the Director of the Services Office Mohammad Qasheet has told Enab Baladi.
Qasheet had on Friday, November 9, explained that the cost of the project is about $140 thousand, in which big and high-quality batteries and 150-watt capacity solar panels were used under the supervision of specialized experts.
He added that the project had a positive impact on the city and its residents as it decreased the rates of thefts and kidnappings in the neighborhoods, in addition to their revival of the markets’ activities at night.
The new lighting points covered the streets of al-Kurnaish, Abi al-Alaa, al-Masaken wa al-Afran, al-Salha street and the south-northern gate of Maarrat al-Nu’man, which are the city’s principal streets.
Lighting in Idlib governorate depends on solar power, generated through renewed energy panels which do not require fuel under the absent electricity in the governorate. The panels are connected to batteries and provided with “LED” lights that have sensors, which generate lighting.
For his part the media activist Rami al-Maari told Enab Baladi that the new project had been applauded by the people due to the sense of security and other benefits that overcame them, enabling them to wander at night.”
“Wandering in the city was prohibited before,” according to al-Maari, but after the streets and neighborhoods were lit, it became easy for the people to move around to meet their own needs, and the shops are capable of opening their doors at night.
Al-Maari hopes that support for the service projects in his area and adjacent ones continues as to achieve the stability of the area and activate the economic movement there, adding that: “The most important thing is the return of the stability and security to the governorate.”
These projects are temporary solutions, for the people would not be happy for real unless the regular electricity returns to their city being cut for years due to the war.
Lately, Idlib governorate has been witnessing a state of security deterioration as a result of the proliferation of assassinations and repeated kidnappings, which negatively affected the economy. However, the people’s hope lies in the Sochi deal, which spared the area the choice of war.
The Maarrat al-Nu’man Local Council, in the past a few months, have implemented a number of service-related projects, on top of which is “Money for Work,” which aimed at securing temporary job opportunities for unemployed young people.
Last May, the Council has also opened a market, the cost of which is estimated with $70 thousands, seeking to provide convenient prices for the city’s people and IDPs. The project is considered the first of its kind in Northern Syria.
The city of Maarrat al-Nu’man is located in the southern rural parts of Idlib governorate, with a population of 120 thousand persons, of whom 97 thousand are originally from the city and 23 thousand others are displaced to it from different Syrian governorates, according to the Local Council’s statistics.