Introduction
Shirqat is a district in northern Salah al-Din predominantly inhabited by Sunni Arab populations. The largest urban settlement in the district is Shirqat town, on the west bank of the river Tigris, with both banks of the river populated by urban settlements. The east bank of Shirqat is a collection of large and small villages that together form a generally continuously populated area.
On 10 June 2014, the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took control over Shirqat, leading to the displacement of most of the approximate 210,000 residents.1,2 The Government of Iraq (GoI) declared Shirqat town on the west bank retaken on 23 September 2016, with ISIL members subsequently fleeing across the Tigris and occupying the east bank, in turn retaken a year later. As of October 2018, approximately 123,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have returned to Shirqat, although many still remain displaced across Iraq.
Patterns of displacement and return to Shirqat reflect a broader trend across Iraq. Nationally, towards the end of 2018 the number of IDPs returning to their area of origin (AoO) began to slow down, with still approximately 1.87 million IDPs across the country as of October 2018.3 This trend has highlighted the need to explore barriers to return related to a lack of services and infrastructure; as well as the requisite conditions for safe and voluntary returns to guide the implementation of rehabilitation and reconstruction activities in areas of return. In order to fill these information gaps, REACH, in support of the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster, conducted an assessment of Services and Infrastructure in Return Areas (SIRA).
Shirqat district was selected due to operational information gaps being identified with regard to services and infrastructure, and the REACH-CCCM August 2008 Intentions Assessment identifying that only 5% of IDP households from Shirqat intended to return in the 12 months following data collection.4
This assessment focuses on the settlements located on the east bank of the Tigris river, due to the more recent retaking of land from ISIL, and preliminary desk research identifying major information gaps with regard to services and infrastructure. Shirqat town was also included in this assessment, due to its importance as a service hub for the residents of east Shirqat, and the wider Shirqat district.