Damascus was ranked among the lowest for quality of living across capitals of the Middle East in 2018 based on a variety of standards, including crime rates, oppression of freedoms, corruption, and censorship.
Observers attributed this to the spread of the Assad regime’s terrorist groups which control the major sectors of the state and commit the most horrible crimes against Syrian civilians.
According to the Mercer index, Damascus ranked 225 in the world, just two places before Sanaa and Baghdad which came last.
Meanwhile, the World Cities Day was observed on Wednesday. The concept was first brought about by the UN General Assembly in 2013 to “greatly promote the international community’s interest in global urbanization.”
The annual report about the standards of living for 2017 showed that Damascus is one of the worst cities in the world to live in, while the city of Melbourne, Australia topped the list of the most livable cities.
Damascus suffers from serious deterioration of living conditions due to the lack of basic necessities of life, such as access to electricity and water as well as soaring inflation and low per capita income which does not exceed 50,000 Syrian pounds ($100) per month.
Furthermore, some neighborhoods of Damascus were razed to the ground as a result of air and artillery bombardment by the Assad regime forces and their allied sectarian militias.
International human rights organizations earlier published various reports about mass killings of detainees in the prisons of the Assad regime.
Last August, the United Nations estimated the cost of rebuilding infrastructure in Syria at about $ 400 billion. The United States, the European Union, Japan and Canada have already confirmed that they will not contribute to reconstruction unless a political transition in the country is put in place. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
