By Olfa Andolsi and Hadi Fornaji.
Tunis, 8 July 2017:
With Benghazi now declared liberated, the media, culture and civil society authority of the Beida-based interim government has announced a competition for the best plan to rebuild the shattered city.
In the lengthy battle to smash the militants, parts of the city, particularly the historic centre, were themselves smashed and in many cases restoration is not an option.
The authority, which is effectively the Thinni govermment’s information and culture ministry, says the proposals must take into account population growth over the next 25 years and plans for the city’s economic development. It must also adhere to the latest environmental standards and ideas, as well as all the latest international construction and safety specifications.
It furthemore says it does not want the proposals to replicate standard international design. Rather they should reflect the city’s history and heritage, in particular its Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Ottoman and Italian past.
Meanwhile, following a staff meeting last week to discuss reopening Benghazi port, the employees are now reported to have started work to put it back in order.
Elsewhere in the city, the municipal guard, in collaboration with the city’s street cleaning and rubbish removal operation, the General Services Company, today launched a campaign to clean up a number of streets in the city and remove months of accumulated garbage.
Under the direction its head, Colonel Wanis Al-Arifi, the municipal guard, together with the cleansing department, has started removing rubbish from the open space at the intersection at Palestine Street and the Fourth Ring Road which had become a dumping ground.
