The harsh weather conditions, the consecutive years of drought and the repeated attacks on water resources in Daraa Governorate have led to the drying up of some dams and water sources. The loss of these water resources have contributed to the decline in agricultural areas and increased the financial burden on the population worsening their economic situations.
“The chaos in the country has caused waste and depletion of water reservoirs,” said engineer Qusay al-Qasim. He explained that the regime institutions, indiscriminately excavating the artesian and surface wells and constructing dams along water streams in recent years and the misuse of springs and natural water sources, has contributed to the phenomenon of aggregate dry dams. According to al-Qasim, several dams have suffered water shortages including eastern Daraa dam, Abidin, Adwan and the Saham al-Golan in the Yarmouk basin, dams in western Daraa countryside, natural al-Mazerib Lake, and the western Tafas Dam.
He added that “The contamination of some of the province’s dams with sewage water exacerbated farmers’ problems, and rendered large tracts of agricultural land close to those dams unusable and outside the cycle of agricultural investment.”
“Eastern Daraa Dam, one of the most important and largest dams in the province, has not witnessed since its investment more than 40 years ago, such a dire situation. It did not record a significant decrease in its water levels except during the period of the war the country is witnessing. The regime closing off the main sources feeding the dam via Wadi al-Zaidi coming from the east of the province, and some channels connecting to it from springs west of the province.”
Speaking to Ammar Johmani, al-Qasim said that rainwater during last winter and what water arrived from the rivers usually feeding the dam brought life to the dam after a period of drought that lasted several months. The drought had caused the death of all aquatic life and fish in the dam and caused much of the nearby woodlands to die as well.
Several residents pointed out that the dryness of the dams and the scarcity of water in some of the province’s dams exacerbated their economic situation, forced them to leave their land fallow, and caused thousands of fruit and forest trees growing along the sides of the dams to dry up.
“I have a field near Eastern Daraa Dam with hundreds of perennial olive trees which are decades old. In recent years, I have had to turn large numbers of the trees into wood because they dried up and I was unable to provide enough water to irrigate them due to the water shortage in the dam and our inability to pump water into it because of the scarcity of fuel derivatives and their high prices,” said Abu Abdul Qader, 58, a farmer from Daraa.
Speaking to Ammar Johmani, he added “Every year I made more than 50 tankards of oil from my field, but in the past two years, I have not benefited. I have not even managed to make my winter provisions.”
Abu Aziz, 46, a farmer from western Daraa countryside, said he “was forced to buy water tanks to irrigate his olive grove,” pointing out that he pays 5,500 Syrian Pounds for a 40-barrel water tank because of the distance of his field from the well where he buys water.
He said, “The low level of water in the Western Tafas Dam prevented many farmers from watering their crops and fruit orchards, especially olive groves, which are essential sources of income for the majority of the remaining population.”
“We no longer have any sources of livelihood other than the land and what it gives, but we face many obstacles, especially the lack of water,” he added. He called on the responsible authorities in the liberated areas to put an end to the erosion of the water sources, stop the attacks against water sources and to regulate its consumption.
Samer al-Abdullah, an engineer, stressed that “The drought in the dams poses a great danger to the dam’s structural integrity and causes cracking and fractures.” He indicated that “the lack of monitoring and inability to conduct periodic maintenance checks on the networks and dam components threatens the dams with going out of investment whereby their presence will present a danger to nearby residential areas in the rainy seasons.”
According to al-Abdullah, “Most of the dams in the province have not received a periodic maintenance check since the beginning of the revolution, because the regime institutions’ were unable to access the dams due to the military actions, and the Daraa Free Council does not have the material or the human potential to undertake this task.”
A source in the Daraa Governorate Council confirmed that the water situation in the province has become very serious due to the continuous depletion of the water sources and the inability to compensate the losses. He pointed out that drinking water sources are also at risk at present and that the per capita share has fallen from 150 liters per day to less than 30 liters.
Speaking to Ammar Johmani, the source added, “The lack of maintenance of pumping stations for the drinking water projects, lack of electricity and fuel derivatives to operate the stations has caused many communities to suffer from a large water deficit. The population have been forced to compensate for this by buying water from wells which are usually not clean and very expensive. The issue has caused some diseases to spread other than forcing citizens to set aside a special budget of no less than 10,000 Syrian Pounds per month for the price of water.”
It is noteworthy that there are around 16 storage dams in Daraa province distributed in different parts of the province. Their maximum storage capacity is around 92 million cubic meters. The dams irrigate over 10,000 hectares of fertile agricultural land, and their storage capacity for this year is less than 21% due to the lack of rainfall. There are also around 4750 wells irrigating vast areas of land, but many of them cannot be planted due to drought and misuse.
