Helping to build a new community in Iraq

14 March 2019

The answer to housing shortages is not simply to build more, but to build with attention to the needs of the prospective inhabitants. Answering to such a shortage in Baghdad, Lafarge Iraq has already provided over 100,000 tonnes of high-quality cement to build housing, hospitals and schools to help the future community of Besmaya City to thrive.

Lafarge Iraq lays foundations of new communities

Iraq faces a shortage of affordable, quality housing – nowhere more than in Baghdad, which is already severely overcrowded. To alleviate this pressure the national government has embarked on an ambitious plan to build Besmaya City, the largest housing project in the Middle East. Located ten kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Besmaya City is spread over a total area of 1,830 hectares and aims to accommodate around 500,000 occupants in a total of 100,000 residential units. In addition to housing, the project encompasses community infrastructure such as schools and hospitals.

Lafarge Iraq is the main supplier of cement to the Besmaya City project, to which we have already delivered 180,000 tonnes of cement as of the end of 2018.

Haider Talib Nasir, Basmaya City Project Manager, visiting our facilities

“I’m extremely pleased with the quality of cement that Lafarge has provided. This is not the first time I’ve worked with Lafarge, so I knew the quality would be good. The product is further enhanced by the good systems and services that Lafarge implement. No one in Iraq can compete.”

Haider Talib Nasir

Basmaya City Project Manager

Addressing a global need

We are proud of the high social impact our business has by providing affordable housing. Four billion people around the world do not have access to decent housing, including 150 million in developed countries. Over 800 million people live in slums. To address this need, LafargeHolcim offers a range of affordable housing solutions to populations and governments, including microfinance, earth-cement building solutions, slum renovation and collective social housing.