By Libya Herald reporters.
Tripoli, 22 January 2017:
While high prices and shortages of building materials are challenging townspeople returning to Sirte, plans are under way to restart higher education.
Directors of Sirte university met today in Tripoli to look at reopening the eleven faculties which include two on a separate campus in Hun. Sirte, which until 1991 was part of Benghazi’s Garayounis university, has specialised in agriculture, science and engineering. It is unclear how many students were enrolled when the town was overrun by IS terrorists in May 2015. But three years earlier there were just over ten thousand, of whom 500 lived on campus.
Repairing and reequipping damaged buildings is likely to go hand-in-hand with the reestablishment of the roll and the assessment of how far students had gone in their qualifications before the university was forced to suspend operations.
University managers are likely to face the same challenges as everyone else in the town in seeking to rebuild. Five districts have been swept for IEDs and residents have been told they can return. But Al-Buwabat reported today that the price of basics such as cement has rocketed. Given that many residences have suffered severe damage, the demand for materials already exceeds supply.
A committee has been set up in the town to see if it might be possible to claim compensation for shattered homes.
