After Years of War, Millions of Syrians Now Face Serious Water Crisis

With the Syrian civil war in its 10th year and more than half the country’s population forcibly displaced by conflict, millions of Syrians face a new crisis: insufficient access to safe water that has increased food insecurity, diminished livelihoods and spurred further migration in search of resources.

According to an October 21 U.N Security Council report, people in Syria’s north and northeastern regions remain unable to reliably access sufficient supplies of safe water. The reasons are both environmental and man-made.

According to the U.N.’s September 9 action plan to address the water crisis, 5.5 million Syrians’ access to a critical water supply, the Euphrates River, is in jeopardy because of water levels that have been dwindling since January.

Less water flowing into the river from upstream, accompanied by irregular and reduced rainfall and higher-than-average temperatures, has created drought-like conditions in the region, according to the September U.N. report. The severity of the situation in Syria, say some experts, is largely attributed to the impact of climate change in the region.

Steven Gorelick is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment and director of its Global Freshwater Initiative, a program that aims to increase freshwater supplies in countries threatened by climate change, such as Jordan.

Gorelick said that the outcomes of his work in Jordan may be used to evaluate water scarcity in other Middle Eastern countries, such as Syria. Droughts occur regularly in the region and in Syria, with its naturally semi-arid climate, but are worsened by the present environmental crisis, he said.

“Given climate change, much of the Middle East is highly vulnerable to the impacts of drought, which in portions of the region will become more frequent, last longer and will be more severe,” he said.

In addition to climatic factors precipitating the water crisis, civilian access to water has been further diminished because of the water supply systems.

According to the U.N. action plan, recurring shutdowns and “reduced operational capacity” of the Alouk water station in northeastern Syria has threatened about 500,000 people’s direct access to water in the city of Al-Hasakeh and the surrounding region. Similar issues have occurred with the Al-Khafsa water station, which supplies Aleppo from the western bank of the Euphrates, and the nearby Ein El-Bayda water pumping station, which supplies an estimated 184,000 people with water.