🧵 Driven by high property prices, Daraa residents are building homes beyond the planned boundaries of cities and towns, creating new neighborhoods without basic infrastructure and presenting already overstretched municipalities with a dilemma.
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2⃣ Satellite imagery illustrates the new reality. Between May 2011 and June 2026, residential development significantly expanded across predominantly agricultural land between Inkhil and Simlin in northern Daraa.
Jun 30, 2026 · 4:28 PM UTC
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3⃣ For those like Muhammad Abu Qassem, who is building a small home on farmland inherited from his father just outside the city of Jassem, living outside the city’s planning boundary means doing without public electricity, water and sewage networks.
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4⃣ Municipalities are "not legally concerned with providing services to neighborhoods and houses outside the organizational plan, so most services in those areas are provided by property owners themselves," one mayor in eastern Daraa said.
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5⃣ Meanwhile, large areas that were incorporated into official zoning plans in 2010, shortly before the Syrian revolution broke out in March 2011, still lack basic services today.
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6⃣ For now, local officials are looking the other way when it comes to unauthorized construction inside or outside of Daraa cities, only taking action against buildings that encroach on roads or public property.
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7⃣ "The laws in force prohibit construction on agricultural land, and require us to seal the building with red wax and demolish it," one municipal official in Inkhil said. "If we enforced the law, we would demolish cities."
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Outside the plan: Urban growth outpaces roads and services in Daraa
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syriadirect.org/outside-the-…
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