Dry Syria Winter Triggers Water Crisis 05/20 06:15

   

   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, which it has been supplying 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 33 years and this is the 
first year it is that dry," Bashi said.

   The spring is the main source of water for 5 million people, supplying 
Damascus and its suburbs with 70% of their water.

   As the city suffers its worst water shortages in years, many people now rely 
on buying water from private tanker trucks that fill from wells.

   Government officials are warning that the situation could get worse in the 
summer and are urging residents to use water sparingly while showering, 
cleaning 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.

   Darwish said the springwater 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."

   There are 1.1 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 said.

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

   In Damascus's eastern area of Abbasids, Bassam Jbara is feeling the 
shortage. His neighborhood only gets water for about 90 minutes a day, compared 
with previous years when water was always running when they turned on the taps.

   Persistent electricity cuts are making the problem worse, he said, 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 $15, a large amount of money in a country 
where many people make less than $100 a month.

   "From what we are seeing, we are heading toward difficult conditions 
regarding water," he said, 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 said.

   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 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 and is now working on 
rebuilding the restaurant he owned. It was blown up by Assad's forces after he 
left the area.

   Abdul-Wahed looked at the dry area 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 said 
as reconstruction work was ongoing in the restaurant that helped 15 families 
living nearby 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 said. "We hope that the 
good old days return with people coming here."