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

Syria’s capital is suffering from its worst water shortages in years as a result of the lowest rainfall in more than six decades.

The Ein al-Fijeh spring in the Barada Valley is almost dry, leaving many people to rely on buying water from tankers that fill from wells.

The spring is the main source of water for five million people, supplying Damascus and its suburbs with 70% of their water.

Government officials are warning that things could get worse in the summer and are urging residents to economise in water consumption while showering or washing dishes.

“The Ein al-Fijeh spring is working now at its lowest level,” said Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority, adding that the current year witnessed the lowest rainfall since 1956.

The channels that have been there since the day of the Romans two millennia ago were improved in 1920 and then again in 1980, he said.

Mr Darwish said the water comes mainly from rainfall and melted snow off the mountains along the border with Lebanon, but because of this year’s below-average rainfall “it has given us amounts that are much less than normal”.

The spring also feeds the Barada River that cuts through the capital. It is mostly dry this year.

During Syria’s 14-year conflict, Ein al-Fijeh was subjected to shelling on several occasions, changing between forces of then-president Bashar Assad and insurgents over the years.

In early 2017, government forces captured the area from insurgents and held it until December when the five-decade Assad dynasty collapsed in an 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 and is now working on rebuilding the restaurant he owned. It was blown up by Mr Assad’s forces after he left the area.

Mr Abdul-Wahed said: “The Ein al-Fijeh spring is the only artery to Damascus. Now it looks like a desert.”