Syria’s driest winter in nearly 7 decades triggers a severe water crisis in Damascus

BARADA VALLEY Syria AP Inside a mountain above the Syrian capital Hassan Bashi walked through tunnels that used to be filled with water from a spring famous for its pure waters The spring rises inside the ruins of a Roman temple in the Barada Valley and flows toward Damascus supplying the city with drinking water for thousands of years Normally during the winter flood season water fills all the tunnels and washes over much of the temple Now there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades Bashi who is a guard but also knows how to operate the pumping and water filtration machines in the absence of the engineer in charge displayed an old video on his cell phone of high waters inside the ruins I have been working at the Ein al-Fijeh spring for years and this is the first year it is that dry Bashi revealed The spring and the Barada River that it feeds are the main source of water for million people supplying Damascus and its suburbs with of their water As the city suffers its worst water shortages in years a great number of people now rely on buying water from private tanker trucks that fill from wells Authorities are warning that the situation could get worse in the summer and urge residents to use water sparingly while showering cleaning or washing dishes The Ein al-Fijeh spring is working now at its lowest level disclosed Ahmad Darwish head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority adding that the current year witnessed the lowest rainfall since The channels that have been there since the day of the Romans two millennia ago were improved in and then again in he noted Darwish revealed the spring water comes mainly from rainfall and melted snow off the mountains along the confines with Lebanon but because of this year s below-average rainfall it has given us amounts that are much less than normal There are million homes that get water from the spring and in order to get through the year people will have to cut down their consumption he revealed The spring also feeds the Barada River which cuts through Damascus and which is also mostly dry this year In the city s eastern area of Abbasids Bassam Jbara is feeling the shortage His neighborhood only gets water for about minutes a day compared with previous years when water was unfailingly running when they turned on the taps Persistent electricity cuts are making the dilemma worse he mentioned as they sometimes have water but no power to pump it to the tankers on the roof of the building Jbara once had to buy five barrels of undrinkable water from a tanker truck that cost him and his neighbors a large amount of money in a country where numerous people make less than a month From what we are seeing we are heading toward formidable conditions regarding water he explained fearing that supplies will drop to once or twice a week over the summer He is already economizing The people of Damascus are used to having water every day and to drinking tap water coming from the Ein al-Fijeh spring but unfortunately the spring is now weak Jbara reported During Syria s nearly -year civil war Ein al-Fijeh was subjected to multiple shellings changing between forces of then- President Bashar Assad and insurgents over the years In early administration forces captured the area from insurgents and held it until December when the five-decade Assad dynasty collapsed in a stunning offensive by fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group or HTS of current President Ahmad al-Sharaa Tarek Abdul-Wahed returned to his home near the spring in December nearly eight years after he was forced to leave with his family He is now working on rebuilding the restaurant he had once owned it was blown up by Assad s forces after Abdul-Wahed left He looked at the parched region that used to be filled with tourists and Syrians who would come in the summer to enjoy the cool weather The Ein al-Fijeh spring is the only artery to Damascus Abdul-Wahed commented as reconstruction work was ongoing in the restaurant which had helped families in the area make a living in addition to the employees who came from other parts of Syria Now it looks like a desert There is no one he disclosed We hope that the good old days return with people coming here Source