The family of Omar Al Hamid and Hanaa no longer find a living in the village after suffering several losses in the past few years due to the meager yield of the wheat crop in the Sahl al Ghab region west of Hama. The land used to be a source of a comfortable living for the family, but the drought in the dams and the interruption of irrigation channels cut off the sources of prosperity.
Omar Al Hamid has been working as a daily laborer in construction in the camps area on the Syrian-Turkish border for the past 50 days, earning no more than two and a half dollars a day. This is a stark contrast to his annual income before the drought in the dams in the Sahl al Ghab region, which used to exceed $11,000. He used to cultivate consecutive crops throughout the year, but the failed water security policies of the Assad regime turned Omar’s land and his neighbors’ from a green paradise into a desert area, devoid of irrigation water.
The Return of Desertification
The Sahl al Ghab region is considered one of the strategic agricultural areas in Syria. It used to rank third in the agricultural baskets classification for Syria, following the plains of Hasakah and Houran. The Sahl al Ghab region benefits from the flow of the Assi River through its agricultural plain, spanning over 90,000 hectares rich in seasonal and early vegetables, tobacco, cotton, sugar beets, and other crops that used to provide a stable life for the residents before the explosion of the Zeyzoun Dam in 2002. Since then, the first stages of migration of farmers from their fields began.
In 2002, the Zeyzoun Dam exploded after five years of use, marking a crucial turning point in the history of agriculture and livelihood for farmers in the region. Prior to the explosion, farmers worked on cultivating their lands successively throughout the year, benefiting from the yields. However, the joy was short-lived as it ended within five years due to the dam explosion after excess water was pumped beyond its storage capacity. This was supervised by the Assi Basin Foundation, affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in the regime’s government, according to agricultural engineer Abduljabbar Al Obaid.
The explosion of the Zeyzoun Dam in early June 2002 caused the death of 22 civilians working in agriculture and sheep grazing, along with the destruction of several villages located near the dam. Additionally, thousands of livestock, including sheep and cattle, perished. Simultaneously, all the cultivated crops were submerged in an agricultural area estimated at about 32,000 hectares, causing complete devastation, according to farmer Saddam Al Mousa. The explosion of the Zeyzoun Dam didn’t just kill 22 civilians; it killed the dreams and livelihoods of more than 80,000 people who depended on agriculture for their living.
Migration Amidst the Absence of Solutions
Farmer Saddam Al Moussa states that signs of migration from agricultural lands in the Sahl al Ghab region began two years after the explosion of the Zeyzoun Dam, especially when farmers noticed the absence of any efforts by the government at that time to repair and reactivate the dam. The lands returned to their previous state, where they could only be cultivated for one season per year.
“Due to the lack of irrigation water, wheat became the optimal solution for agriculture at that time. However, it alone did not provide a decent living for the residents. Many of them traveled to Lebanon and Damascus to work as daily laborers, leaving their lands that no longer yielded enough. The fields transformed from fertile lands to barren ones in the summer, interspersed with cracks,” Al Moussa adds.
The regime’s government did not work on repairing the Zeyzoun Dam and bringing it back into operation. Over the course of 13 years, it only transported some trucks of gravel and soil to the site of the dam explosion or what is known as the breach in the dam’s structure, according to agricultural engineer Yasser Al Taleb. The Assad government gave an undertaking to return the dam to service to Rima, the Public Company for Irrigation and Drinking Water, which was responsible for the initial construction of the dam. This period witnessed the spread of desertification in the lands of Sahl al Ghab, which were no longer reached by irrigation water, and which were marked by a shortage of minerals, metals, and increasing thirst, all due to climate change in recent years.
During the years following the Zeyzoun Dam explosion, the Assad government worked on raising fuel prices, especially diesel, which farmers used to operate artesian wells and pump water from the Assi River to irrigate the remaining cultivable lands, according to farmer Noureddine Ibrahim.
According to Ibrahim, “the Assad regime did not suffice with refraining from bringing the Zeyzoun Dam back to work, which used to be a lifeline for farmers and lands. Instead, it raised the price of diesel in 2006 from 7 Syrian pounds at that time to 25 pounds at once, equivalent to half a dollar. This impacted the irrigation of crops and their productivity.”
Theft Produced Drought
The desert area expanded in the Sahl al Ghab region after 2013, as the regime forces were concentrating on their war against Syrians at the Assi Basin pumping station, used to pump irrigation water from the Assi River to the Qastoun Dam. This was accompanied by looting activities that targeted the equipment and machinery operating the pumping station, selling them to influential traders in the region.
One of the workers at the station, who refused to mention his name for security reasons, says, “By July 2023, the regime forces stationed at the Assi Basin pumping station ordered us to stop working at the station, cut off its daily operation, and on the last day, I saw people dismantling some equipment from the station and taking it out of the walls with four-wheel-drive pickup trucks, heading towards the Latakia road.”
The Zeyzoun Dam, like the Qastoun Dam, was responsible for irrigating more than 20,000 hectares, diversifying the crops within, and providing a strong economy for the population, a green area for the region, and vast pastures for animals. All of this disappeared due to the cessation of water pumping to the dam, which no longer contains an amount equivalent to 300,000 hectares today, as it relies on a water spring descending from the slopes of the nearby Mount al Zawiyah.
Anwar Al Yassin, a shepherd, says that he sold a large portion of his sheep due to the scarcity of water sources in the Sahl al Ghab region after 2015, and the lack of water in the irrigation canals that used to quench his herd’s thirst. However, the years following the cessation of water pumping from the Qastoun Dam led to the thirst of his flock and other herds in the region, along with the drying up of many water reservoirs.
According to vegetable merchant Yahya Al Salloum, the past ten years witnessed a significant decrease in vegetable shipments from the Sahl al Ghab region, known for providing various vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, and zucchini to markets in the provinces of Aleppo and Homs.
The increasing costs of obtaining irrigation water also forced farmers to switch from growing vegetables to cultivating wheat and barley. However, even wheat no longer yields good productivity due to its repeated cultivation every year, depleting the fertility of the soil. One hectare that used to produce 500 kilograms now only produces230 kilograms in recent years, affecting the economy and livelihood of the residents and leading to an increase in poverty levels.
Jassem Al Hassan, 82, recalls that the temperature in the Sahl al Ghab region was completely different 20 years ago. The surrounding agricultural areas were planted with green crops like cotton, sugar beets, and vegetables that constantly required irrigation. These crops provided fresh air and invigorating scents, contributing to reducing temperatures.
Al Hassan adds: “My house was surrounded by various crops in the summer. In contrast, today, the lands around my house have become barren – a source of dust, and the air passing through them reaches our house hot. This applies to all residents in the Sahl al Ghab region who lost irrigation water and agriculture.”
Al Hassan states that what “breaks the heart” the most is the passage of the Assi River through the middle of the Sahl al Ghab region, containing massive amounts of water, especially in the winter, without benefiting from it due to the cessation of pumping towards the dams on one hand, and the Assad regime’s control over the river and targeting anyone approaching it on the other. This was evident when fishermen were killed in 2021.
A Terrifying Future
Numerous studies conducted between 2000 and 2010 revealed that the Syrian government failed to manage the increasing demand for water, amidst the country’s struggles with climate change and recurring drought.
Water constitutes one of the most crucial elements for sustaining life and the most impactful resource in the lives of people across all regions of Syria. However, since the beginning of 2011, the water issue has emerged as one of the key challenges linked to the humanitarian suffering of civilian populations.
Parties involved in the conflict have used water as a means to achieve political, military, and economic gains. This resource has become closely intertwined with changes in military control and areas of influence for these parties, significantly affecting water availability in most Syrian cities and rural areas. This is due to the deterioration of water infrastructure and the loss and damage to over half of the total water production capacity. This new situation has had numerous negative repercussions on the social and economic stability of the population in both urban and rural areas.
Economic expert Abdelghani Al Mazen believes that Syria used to be a wheat-exporting country before 2011. However, due to the regime’s war on the population, the destruction of agricultural and water infrastructure, and its use of water as a weapon against civilians, killing farmers and forcing them to abandon their lands, Syria has now become a major wheat importer. This has led to a surge in bread prices to unprecedented levels in a situation that seems to have no immediate end, especially with the continuation of various control policies and the absence of a unified government for the entirety of Syria.
