Al-Hasakah Governor Nour al-Din Ahmed discussed with representatives of UNICEF and the Directorates of Water and Education ways to accelerate the reopening of the Alouk Water Station, in light of the ongoing water crisis that the governorate has suffered from for years.

During the meeting, the head of the organization’s office, Julie Faranda, reviewed UNICEF’s activities in the governorate and the possibility of strengthening cooperation with official bodies, particularly with regard to supporting the water sector and rehabilitating the infrastructure of essential services.

The Governor of al-Hasakah stressed the need to quickly restart the Alouk Station, which is the main source of drinking water for the city of al-Hasakah and its countryside, in addition to discussing the possibility of rehabilitating several damaged schools in the governorate.

These efforts come at a time when approximately 1.5 million people in al-Hasakah and its countryside have been facing an ongoing water crisis since 2019, after water pumping stopped from the Alouk station located in the Serê Kaniyê / Ras al-Ain area. This has forced residents to rely on expensive water tankers or shallow wells that often lack proper health standards.

According to local sources, international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, along with several UN agencies, have proposed initiatives to restart the station and cover maintenance costs. However, these efforts have not yet resulted in the restoration of water pumping.

Water from the Alouk station has been cut off to the cities of al-Hasakah and Tal Tamr more than 28 times over the past four years, and it has been completely halted since June 2023, despite repeated international mediation efforts.

The water crisis in al-Hasakah Governorate therefore remains unresolved, awaiting practical steps that would fully restore the operation of the Alouk Water Station and end years of suffering for residents in accessing safe drinking and domestic water.

Geologist Amer al-Rakrak told North Press that all wells in Hasakah are shallow, noting that the governorate lacks artesian wells or deep groundwater reserves fed from distant or renewable sources. He explained that most wells historically depended on the Khabur and Jaghjagh rivers, in addition to seasonal rainwater runoff, all of which have sharply declined in recent years.

Al-Rakrak attributed the rapid drop in groundwater levels to excessive pumping by residents and private water distribution outlets, as well as random and unregulated drilling in unsuitable geological layers. “These practices not only cause water levels to fall, but also lead to a gradual deterioration in water quality with every additional decline,” he added. 

He indicated that some areas rely directly on rainfall, rivers, and nearby streams, but stressed that these sources are insufficient to meet summer demand and cannot serve as a long-term solution to secure water supplies for Hasakah city and its surrounding countryside.

According to al-Rakrak, groundwater levels are falling by an estimated two to three meters annually, placing increasing pressure on residents, agricultural production, and vegetation cover, and turning water management into a persistent and growing challenge.

He stressed the urgent need for long-term, sustainable strategic projects, such as constructing a water canal from the Tigris River, to ensure lasting water security for the region.

Failure to implement such solutions, he warned, could lead to the complete depletion of existing wells and render water sources unfit for drinking, with serious health, environmental, and agricultural consequences.

Hasakah Governorate has long been one of Syria’s most agriculturally important regions, heavily dependent on rainfall, rivers, and groundwater to sustain farming and daily life.

Over the past decade, however, prolonged drought, climate change, upstream water policies, and damage to infrastructure caused by the conflict have significantly reduced surface water availability.

The drying of the Khabur River and repeated disruptions to major water facilities, including the Alouk water station, have forced residents to increasingly rely on groundwater.  

The absence of effective regulation and sustainable water management has accelerated depletion, making water scarcity one of the most pressing humanitarian and environmental challenges facing northeastern Syria today.

The everyday people of the region are living remarkably stable lives, the children are going to school, the stores are full of food and products, and – most of the time – the lights turn on and there is water in the tap. In the the dust and heat, the people of Northeast Syria have built a functioning system, organized governance, decent electricity, water, and sanitation, the presence of local police forces, and even traffic and parking enforcement. I was surprised to see, on a main street adjacent to the city center in Qamishlo, near the so-called “Jewish market,” a set of pay-parking spots, hosting several cars with freshly-issued parking tickets on the windshields.

Northeast Syria is protected by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US ally in the fight to defeat ISIS. The region was ravaged by the brutal battles against ISIS, and has not seen a presence of the central Syrian government since 2011. Although the occasional Turkish bomb still falls on the region, and although the new Syrian military has engaged the SDF in small skirmishes at the southern tip of the region, Northeast Syria is full of people doing business, innovating, creating art, getting married, starting families, and living lives of an unlikely peace – given the circumstances.

This stability is especially notable for those who are interested in US policy toward the region, because for the entire year, the US government had been normalizing with the new government in power in Damascus, which controls the other two-thirds of Syria, and largely ignoring the northeast part of the country, which has been a reliable US ally, with US troops stationed in their region. The new government in Damascus is largely made up of militants associated with the religious extremism of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham and the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat Al-Nusra. While I was traveling in the northeast, residents in the Damascus-controlled region were describing cities where police are absent, petty crimes occur frequently, and many people are out of work and can’t pay for basic needs. Many said they hadn’t seen the new government anywhere.

While there, I was able to meet with the co-mayor of Qamishlo, Northeast Syria, a city of about 180,000 residents. From her busy office, she described how the city funds these basic services, in between her assistants poking their heads in the door to ask questions about meeting times and contacts. The city of Qamishlo has 22 employees who go door-to-door through the neighborhoods, and collect 10,000 Syrian pounds (about $1 USD, or 1% of the average worker’s income) from each home. If a family is poor and cannot pay, she says, “the employee will look at their house and situation,” and if they appear poor, they just say thanks and walk away. No penalty. No service cut-off. They just do the compassionate thing and leave, without trying to collect.

I also met with the co-mayor of Hasakeh. Walking past residents bustling into and out of the busy municipal government building in the city center as they clutched papers and stacks of the undervalued Syrian pound, we found the co-mayor in a modest office under the loud whir of an air conditioner. She described the careful task of providing water for the 420,000 residents of the city since 2019 when the Turkish Armed Forces seized the Allouk water station, which was the main water source for the city, closing it down. In addition, in the past few decades, Turkey has built a series of dams on the Euphrates River in the southern part of Anatolia, Turkey, the Kurdish region, which severely restrict the water flow into Syria. The municipal government of Hasakeh has been trucking in water in giant water tankers, which are visible throughout the city. They fill privately-owned rooftop water tanks. In addition, the municipal government coordinates with several NGOs, who truck water in to fill public water stations, so anyone can access the water for drinking, cooking, and light washing. She also mentioned that 20% of residents also have access to water from wells, but this water is salinated and contains other toxins, so can be used only for washing and other purposes. This is paid for by taxation, including both household and business taxes. Business taxes are applied according to the footprint of the business in square meters.

The delivery of services in Northeast Syria is a complex, deliberate, and carefully administered system, which is functioning well. Until recently, when the new Syrian government began attracting refugees back into the Damascus-controlled region, Northeast Syria was more stable and prosperous than the rest of Syria. 

I emphasize this comparison because although the West seems intent on normalizing with the new Syrian government in Damascus, the reality on the ground is that Northeast Syria has substantive power. It must be reckoned with, not ignored. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have over 100,000 professional soldiers, men and women who were trained-and-equipped with help from the US Armed Forces and are battle-hardened over the past decade by the fight against ISIS. The forces of the new Syrian government, including affiliated militias, number at about 35,000 troops, with varied levels of training and experience.

While in Northeast Syria I visited the Free Syrian Women’s Foundation center in Qamishlo. Their women’s centers offer low-cost physical fitness gyms for women, women’s literacy and language classes, artisan workshops, and women’s empowerment lessons. They offer low-cost training centers for women to learn how to open a business in a trade such as tailoring and hairdressing, so that women who leave their husbands have a source of income. They also own and run a mobile health unit for women in rural villages, because traditional Muslim men will often not allow their wives or daughters to travel into town to seek medical care.

At this organization, they are afraid that Syria will become the next Afghanistan, and they will [see] the gains they have made rapidly stripped away.

“When the HTS comes here, everyone will be killed,” said one of the directors.

These women are terrified of the new government in Damascus. “They don’t accept strong women,” the director said. “They don’t accept our consciousness, and we don’t accept theirs. They want women to obey, and we want women to be stronger.”

“I am an old woman, but still, I am ready to pick up the gun to defend myself against the terrorists,” a 66-year old woman told me in Qamishlo, northeast Syria, when asked about women’s rights under the new Syrian government. The woman, who was nearly six feet tall and sturdily built, did not appear to be bluffing.

I heard a similar message when I met with a representative from the YPJ Women’s Protection Units. These women’s units of the SDF are known as the Kurdish women who battled ISIS in the trenches and won their freedom against the brutal system of ISIS, wherein they may have become slaves. These women’s militias are cautiously optimistic, but at the same time are remaining vigilant, trained, equipped, and prepared, in case they need to fight a new battle for their freedom.

The women of Northeast Syria carry the memory of extremists who abused and executed women who were too headstrong. They saw how independent women in Raqqa were dragged to the city center by ISIS and beheaded for the crime of speaking back to their husbands. They have now borne witness to violations, murders, and kidnappings of Alaawi women in Latakia in March. This time, it was not ISIS committing atrocities, but the very militants who now are making up the Syrian military. The world has additionally witnessed further terror in July and August — against women, men, doctors, patients, children, the Druze people — by these same militants in Suweyda, southern Syria. This prompted even the Israeli government to engage their military, until the violence ceased. While the new Syrian government promises to investigate the horrific events in southern Syria, the people of Northeast Syria have already arrived at the conclusion that the new Syrian government is to blame for the atrocities.

These women fear that, if the northeast falls to extremism, they will lose their freedom — and possibly their lives, just as Alaawi and Druze women did earlier this year.

For most of this year, US policy on Syria has focused on rapid normalization with the new president, Ahmed Al Sharaa, instead of slowing down and seeing whether he can even assert control outside Damascus. It also remains to be seen how the new Syrian government will respect the rights of women, and protect the gains of the women in Northeast Syria, or whether the region will take the painful path of Afghanistan, where women’s rights were rapidly put in shackles and hidden under a veil when the US withdrew support from the region.

The summer heat has now faded and given way to cooler weather. In December, the new Syrian government will have been in power in Damascus for a full year. Damascus has been in negotiations with the DAANES over how much and how soon Northeast Syria will be integrated into the rest of Syria. These negotiations are taking place on the edge of a knife – the religious extremism of the new government in Damascus pushes in the opposite direction than the more democratic ideologies in the northeast.

No one wants to see Syria fall back into civil war. But the task of uniting a diverse country with many different peoples is not a small one. A lasting solution will be one that reckons with the realities of an intact, effective government in Northeast Syria, as well as a large number of women who do not wish to give up their gains.

The 2nd Mesopotamia Water Forum (MWF), organized to protect water resources, defend the right to water, and ensure ecological justice, continued on its third day at the ÇandAmed Congress and Culture Center. During the event, proposals from two days of forum and workshop discussions were shared. Many international guests, ecology activists, representatives of civil society organizations, and political parties attended the forum.

On the third day and last day of the forum, participants presented their suggestions and measures to be taken in the future. Following the discussion of proposals, it was announced that the final declaration would be released ten days later, incorporating the collected views.

Throughout the three-day discussions, participants emphasized that water is not a scarce resource, but rather that the main issue lies in the unequal access to it. A proposal to recognize rivers as “living entities” received strong support. Participants stated that this approach represents not only a legal struggle but also the beginning of a broader social movement. Representatives from Iraq reported that 80 percent of the country’s water resources had diminished, leading to the displacement of millions. Participants from North and East Syria stated that water cuts constitute a violation of the right to life, and proposed the formation of a delegation to establish democratic pressure mechanisms concerning the Allouk Water Station. Representatives from Turkey drew attention to the impacts of dams, mining, and energy projects on water resources. The forum also highlighted the sacredness of water in Yazidi, Zoroastrian, and Nestorian beliefs.

The main proposals forming the framework of the final declaration were listed as follows:

• Develop new policies against mining activities in river basins.
• Draft international agreements to protect the right to water, ensuring that such agreements are implemented with the direct participation of local communities, and establish relevant commissions.
• Create common digital platforms that allow people to connect quickly.
• Develop shared policies against the pressure of industrial livestock farming on water resources.
• Collect accurate data on water among communities and establish joint research commissions.
• Form a delegation to build democratic pressure mechanisms regarding the Allouk Water Station in Rojava.
• Collect accurate data on water among communities and establish joint research commissions.

The forum’s slogan was “Water is life, water is peace.”

After the conclusion of the forum, participants from various regions visited historical and cultural sites in Amed, including Cemilpaşa Mansion, the Dengbêj House, Fiskaya, the Ten Arches Bridge, and Mount Kırklar.

During the meeting, held at the General Administration of Water, Abu Zeid said that the Syrian government is fully prepared to cooperate with international organizations to ensure the station’s continued operation and to improve the water situation in the governorate, according to the state-run SANA news agency.

Since late 2019, the Alouk station, located in the eastern countryside of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), has been under the control of Turkish forces and affiliated Syrian armed factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), depriving residents of Hasakah and its countryside – run by the AANES – of their main source of drinking water.

Representatives of the ICRC and UNICEF expressed their readiness to provide support and strengthen coordination, stressing that access to drinking water is a fundamental right guaranteed under international conventions, according to SANA.

On June 24, a UN and Syrian Red Crescent convoy consisting of five vehicles crossed through the Shirak crossing in the west of Derbasiyah town, heading toward the Alouk water station in the countryside of Sere Kaniye.

Women striving to preserve the social structure, make Mount Kizwan (Mount Abdulaziz), located in the Jazira Canton of North and East Syria, and its surroundings green. This year, what the most affected women farmers in the region is the low rainfall.

Water shortage in Wasta

One of the villages suffering from water shortage in the region is Wasta, a village located on the foothills of Mount Kizwan, 80 kilometers southwest of Til Temir, a town in northeastern Syria. The village suffers from a water shortage due to the lack of a water network providing drinking water to the village. The villagers fetch water from a water source located 40 km away from the village. The water shortage also affects agriculture in the village.

Symbol of resistance: Kînya tree

Despite all the challenges, the women have managed to make their village green. In the village, a tree called “Kînya” by villagers attracts notice. The tree planted in October 2019, one year before the Turkish state’s attacks on Serêkaniyê (Ras al-Ayn), is now seven years old. The tree was previously watered by water provided from the Alouk water station; however, the women in the village have used salty water to grow the tree since the Turkish state and Turkish-backed armed groups occupied the station and stopped the Alouk water station from pumping water. The tree stands firm in the village despite the salty water, becoming a symbol of resistance.

Take a break in the shade of the tree…

I planted the tree in 2019 to take a break in its shade, Meha El-Hesen told us. “We cannot plant more trees due to the lack of opportunity. We dug a well 10 years ago and we use the water of the well to water the tree. However, the water of the well is salty. We earn a living by raising sheep and cultivating corn. I planted it and now it is seven years old. I planted it to take a break with other women in its shade. Last year, I planted four more trees.”

Sediya Cabir also earns a living by raising sheep. She also suffers from the water shortage in the village. “You cannot see any green space in the village because of the low rainfall and the lack of irrigation. We drive our tractor for 40 km to fetch water from a water source in the village of Xera.”

Trees have a special importance for the villagers, Sediya Cabir told us. “Trees should be protected. I have planted four trees in the village until now; however, sheep ate their leaves. Walls should be built around the trees to protect them. We also suffer from power outages. We use solar panels but they do not provide sufficient power.”

The Ecology Department of the People’s Municipality in Til Temir, a town in Jazira Canton of North and East Syria, works hard despite limited resources. The Ecology Department is one of the most important departments of the municipality, Meha Mihemed, Co-chair of the Ecology Department. “The municipality starts cleaning the town every day at 6 a.m. All trash is collected on the streets and in the neighborhood in the morning. Pesticides are sprayed over neighborhoods to minimize mosquito population when necessary.”

Trees against water crisis

The Ecology Department planted more than a thousand trees that grow without water in 2024. “We planted over a thousand trees on the town’s main roads, parks, intersections, squares and martyrs’ cemetery. We planted palm trees and trees that do not need much water. This year, temperatures are above normal compared to previous years. Since we suffer from a water crisis, we have to plant trees that do not need water and can live for a long time.”

‘Our aim is to create a clean and healthy environment’

One of the duties of the municipality is to beautify the town by planting trees, Meha Mihemed said. “As the municipality in Til Temir, we do our best to plant more trees; however, our society does not have a culture of planting trees.”

The Turkish state has stopped the Alouk water station from pumping drinking water since it occupied Serêkanîyê in 2019, causing water outages in many cities and towns of North and East Syria. “Due to the ongoing water outages, we plant trees to make our environment green. Green spaces play an effective and positive role in climate change. Our aim is to create a clean and healthy environment. If we develop the culture of planting trees in society, we will protect ourselves against many diseases, and our town will turn into a beautiful painting.”

‘We will turn our town into a beautiful painting’

Green spaces are as important as the lungs that provide oxygen to body tissues for cellular respiration, remove the waste product carbon dioxide, Meha Midemed emphasized, adding, “Winter will come in a few months and we will probably suffer from the lack of fuel. In addition, people suffer from the ongoing war. For these reasons, our people should not cut down trees and burn them. We hope that our people will support us to turn our town into a beautiful painting.”

The station’s primary mission is to desalinate and purify water, which is then stored in tanks and distributed to residents of the village of Abu Fas in the south of Hasakah and surrounding villages.

The Alouk water station, located in the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the northwest of Hasakah, is the sole source of water for Hasakah and its countryside.

However, Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), occupied the city of Sere Kaniye in 2019 and took control of the station.

They cut off water and left locals in urgent need amid lack of water resource suitable for drinking.

According to the station’s director, Ali Sultan, the facility has a daily production capacity of 1,100 barrels of potable water. This output serves approximately 52 villages in Area 47, Abdan, and Abu Fas, extending to the borders of Deir ez-Zor Governorate.

Abu Fas and its neighboring 60 villages faced a dire water shortage, relying on tankers that transported water from wells in the al-Hemmah area in northern Hasakah. These tankers charged around 70,000 Syrian pounds (SYP, which equals about $4.50) for five barrels.

Since the new station’s opening, the price has significantly decreased to 20,000 SYP ($1.20) per tank, a 50 percent reduction compared to previous rates due to the closer proximity of the new water source.

Sultan highlighted that the quality of water from the Abu Fas station is visibly superior to that from the al-Hama wells.

He also mentioned that the establishment and equipping of the station cost over $45,000. To further reduce water prices, Sultan has appealed to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) to provide support terms of fuel and raw materials.

The Turkish military conducted a drone strike on a water pumping station in the countryside of Qamishli (Qamişlo), situated in northern Syria’s northern region of Derik on 5 August. The attack reportedly rendered the facility inoperative, cutting off water access for thousands of residents, Hawer News reported.

Turkey claims that its military operations in the area are directed against military targets. However, such an assault on critical civilian infrastructure raises significant questions since the water pumping station, crucial to the local water supply, does not conform to the military profile. This incident is part of a broader pattern of military assaults on civilian services and infrastructure throughout the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).

Local sources also hold Turkey responsible for a drone strike on an olive oil factory on Monday, in the Kerbawi suburb of Qamishli, which caused extensive damage. Official confirmation is pending.

A situation report prepared by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, documents the disruption caused to civilian life by Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria. Fuel, electricity and water supplies have been disrupted in 11 towns and 2,750 villages, affecting more than 1 million people since October, the UN office said, stating that systematic attacks on basic services have worsened the region’s humanitarian crisis.

Turkish bombardments have disabled the Alouk water station, with over 610,000 people no longer having close access to reliable water, and over 1.4 million having their access limited due to the lack of power. These disruptions put the lives and welfare of civilians, especially in the camps supported by NGOs, at great risk.

Medical facilities targeted in December were left with critical damage—oxygen supplies and basic health services, including laboratory work and X-ray facilities—shattered. According to the North and East Syria NGO Forum, the level of destruction has gone well beyond the humanitarian community’s capacity deficit to respond to urgent life-saving needs. It calls for massive rehabilitative efforts to restore basic services and protect civilians and relief workers in the region.

Turkey’s fresh offensive in northern Syria, however, has left as many as 660 villages without electricity, with energy facilities and civilian areas targeted, including grain stores and residential buildings. Energy facilities in Kobani (Kobanê), Amuda (Amudê), and Qamishli have been targeted by Turkish Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs). Several other critical infrastructures in these places, including wheat storage facilities, an electricity plant, and a petrol station, have been under attack. The energy office of the Euphrates governorate reported a power cut in Kobani, Ain Issa (Eyn Îsa), and surrounding villages.

It further reported that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) condemned Turkey for committing deliberate war crimes in the region, with the targeting increasingly catastrophic for civilian life. The SDF stated its right to respond to these attacks and to protect its people and territory.

The decrease of the water in the wells is due to the impact of the high temperatures on the region and the recession of the Khabur River due to cutoff by Turkey, said Yahya Hami, co-chair of the Water Directorate of the AANES in the city of Hasakah.

Previously, 70 percent of a 100-meter-depth well was full of water, but now only 30 percent of the wells is full of water, Hami told North Press.

“Therefore, a 22,000-liter-tanker needs two hours to be filled with water,” the official noted. “Previously, it only took 40 minutes.”

He warned that the region is witnessing a significant water crisis, and that the wells may dry up in the coming period that will lead to a humanitarian crisis. 

About one million people in Hasakah depend on water tankers to access to water for drinking as Turkish forces halt pumping water from Alouk station in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) countryside, north of Hasakah.

The Alouk water station, which is located in the countryside of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the north of Hasakah, has been under the occupation of Turkey and its affiliated armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), since October 2019 following a military operation dubbed “Peace Spring” in which Turkey occupied Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad. 

On June 22, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said more than 1.8 million people in Syria need urgent life-saving support to access safe drinking water in the summer heat.  

The Alouk water station is a crucial source of drinking water for the people of Hasakah, Serêkanîyê (Ras al-Ayn) and Til Temir (Tell Tamer). However, the Turkish state has stopped the station from pumping drinking water since it occupied Serêkanîyê (Ras al-Ayn) and Girê Spî (Tell Abyad). The ongoing water outages affect 1.5 million people living in Hasakah, its villages and surrounding villages.

On August 3, 2023, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, the Executive Council and the Administration Department of Jazira Canton developed a project into practice to solve drinking water problem suffered by the city of Hasakah by digging water wells in Senceqa Saadûn and Kandor villages of Amuda, a town of Hasakah near the Syria–Turkey border. As part of the project, 20 water wells with a depth of 500 meters will be dug and six water tank trucks will transfer drinking water to Hasakah from a pool with the size of 5,000 cubic meters.

‘The water crisis will be solved when the project is completed’

Engineer Zakira Welo is responsible for the water collection part of the project named after Senceqa Saadûn. “This project was developed with the consent of the people of Amuda and the villagers. The aim of the project is to solve the water crisis suffered by the people of Hasakah and its villages. We believe that the water crisis will be solved when the project is completed.”

‘The ongoing attacks affect the project’

Speaking about the ongoing Turkish attacks on the region, she said, “They target the infrastructure of the region and this affects the project. Human rights organizations should prevent the attacks so that we can distribute drinking water to citizens.”

‘Our well runs dry’

The water crisis affects our life, said Şikriya Hisên, a resident of Hasakah. “We are left without water in hot weather. We dug a water well with our neighbor but our well runs dry. We have to buy drinking water but it is dirty. Our children get sick due to dirty water. We demand a solution for this water crisis. The occupying Turkish state causes this crisis.”

The Democratic Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria has completed the first phase of the repair of the “Habur Irrigation Canal” and its stations. The testing process started, and the water is expected to reach the city of Hesekê in less than 48 hours.

Deir ez-Zor Canton Democratic Autonomous Administration Irrigation and Agriculture Board had announced that the repair works were completed on 1 July, and that they had started filling the station, making it operational.

The statement added that the second phase of the project to deliver water to the city of Hesekê was underway.

As part of the completion of the second stage, the water coming from the water station in the city of Sewrê to the pipe networks connected to 3 stations started to flow towards the city of Hesekê.

Speaking to Anha News Agency, Deir ez-Zor Canton Democratic Autonomous Administration Executive Council co-chair Mihemed El Dexil said: “Euphrates water will reach the city of Hesekê in less than 48 hours. The repair works of the pumps connected to Ezîziye Station, which will provide water to the city of Hesekê, have been completed.”

The canal station extends to the city of Sewr and irrigates 220,000 acres of land in the north of Deir ez-Zor Canton. At the same time, drinking water will be provided to 270,000 people through 5 stations, including two stations in Herîze, Herîciye and Xamiye El Sewr. Water will also be supplied to the city of Hesekê through stations and pipelines.

The Democratic Autonomous Administration announced the repair works of the 50-kilometer-long “Habur Irrigation Canal” at the beginning of May.

There has been a water problem in the city of Hesekê since the Turkish state and its mercenaries occupied the city of Serêkaniyê and Alouk station in 2019.

The occupation of the Turkish state and its mercenaries in the city of Serêkaniyê has been continuing since October 2019. So are the attacks on the region. The Turkish state and its mercenaries cut off the Alouk Station, which provides water to more than one and a half million people in Hesekê and its district.

The Turkish state has cut off the water supply more than 40 times since the occupation of Serêkaniyê. According to the Hesekê Water Directorate, the last water cut was 7 months ago and the water cuts still continue.

Initiatives of the Autonomous Administration

Hesekê Water Directorate declared Hesekê a disaster area on 3 July 2023. The Autonomous Administration is carrying out major projects to create an alternative to Alouk Station and meet the needs of the people. At the same time, 60 water tankers that distribute water to the residents of the neighbourhood were put into service for the citizens. Work is also being carried out to provide water to citizens from tankers and wells.

Around 800 water tankers distribute water to the people living in the city every day.

In March 2020, the Cizîrê Canton Democratic Autonomous Administration launched the first water project in the Hime region, west of Hesekê. Within the scope of this project, 15 wells were dug and water was provided to citizens in the city for 3 months. However, the wells dried up due to low water levels.

In August 2021, the Autonomous Administration launched a project that involved drawing water from the Euphrates River to Hesekê, 160 km away. However, the project was stopped due to the Turkish state reducing the Euphrates water.

The Democratic Autonomy Administration launched a new project consisting of 4 stages in August 2023: 20 wells will be opened in the rural parts of Amudê district and water will be pumped to Hesekê through 62 km long pipes.

The project, which started this year, costs approximately 18 million dollars.

According to Hesekê Water Directorate, the city needs an additional 130,000 cubic meters of water daily.

“Within the principles of the AANES is the principle of social ecology. This concept isn’t just about how we can protect ecology, but it relates to a way of managing a community. The protection of the environment is a part of this”, says Omer, who has worked in her position since 2016. She tells RIC about her family history, saying that living an ecological life used to be something natural, not something that had to be struggled for. “In the past, people protected their environment. Still now in the villages people do so. They are more united with nature, raising animals, not using so much energy that destroys the environment like in cities. We want to teach the communes how to separate the garbage now, but my mother was separating the garbage in previous times, and no one had to tell her how to do it. She was feeding animals, so the family had yogurt and eggs, which they made themselves, so there was no need to bring them from somewhere else. You didn’t need a car to bring your needs, you didn’t need to gather loads of animals together in a big place to get milk and yogurt, you could take care of yourself by yourself. Also important is that no company or single person would control yogurt, for example, or manipulate prices. All people could provide for themselves; there was self-sufficiency. We need to look what ecological knowledge is already existing in our society. For example, older people who lived in villages before. We can benefit from their experiences, in terms of how they dealt with trash, how they recycled. My mother doesn’t really produce trash. She uses things many times, until it actually is trash. This is a form of culture.”

Water issues are continually brought up in the conversations. While NES is naturally arid, with long hot summers and little annual precipitation, the effects of global climate change are predicted to be particularly severe in Syria. Meanwhile, the flow of the once mighty Euphrates River has drastically reduced, as upstream damming in Turkey has allowed for the latter to limit flow into Syria. The Khabur River and its streams too have partially or fully dried up. Meanwhile, water from NES’ Alouk water station, which sits in the Turkish-occupied ‘M4 Strip’ is vulnerable to political games, as the Syrian National Army (SNA) which control the area frequently cut the flow off.

“In general, the problem of water is big, especially in Heseke”, says Omer. “The situation there in terms of cleanliness and planting trees is difficult. People can’t even get enough drinking water. If you discuss ecological problems there, people say “I don’t even have water to drink”. Before the Turkish occupation of Sere Kaniye, Heseke had water, but not after. Turkey uses the water to make demands. It is not just the people of Heseke who suffer from this. The people of Sere Kaniye too, many of whom were displaced and fled to Heseke. They rely on tanked water. Bringing tanked water requires oil. We have some projects to solve this crisis but until they are implemented, we need water tanks.”

She states that until those projects are fully approved and announced, little formal information such as cost and operational output can be given but explained that the key project should see water brought to Heseke from a village near Amude via new pipes. One year ago, work began to research groundwater stores in Heseke, by geologists and other scientists. They found that the drinkable water closest to Heseke is in Sere Kaniye (now under Turkish occupation), Tel Brak, or Amude area. Amude, sitting at around 60km from Heseke, is not the ideal location, but there was nothing closer, Omer says. When you get closer to the city, the water is not clean enough. The cost of cleaning that water cancels out the benefits it could bring. The plan is to dig wells in the Amude village, where the water is “really good and plentiful”, and then install pipes to bring this water to Heseke city. One test well has been dug so far. If the project is completed, “it still won’t be able to provide water daily; I don’t say this will solve the problem in Heseke completely, but it will be part of the solution. It will help”, says Omer. She also mentions one other project that was initiated to solve Heseke’s acute water shortage: a plan based on the skeleton of a barely-started Syrian government project to channel water to Heseke from the Euphrates River. “We continued this project last year. The problem we see is that the people who live in villages near the river pipe tap the water illegally, so the amount that reaches the city is minimal. The project was only ever estimated to provide 20% of the city’s water needs, but people siphoning off water before it even reaches the city means its provision is really low and the water flow is slow. The amount reaching the city is not enough. And the villages near the pipe also suffer from a lack of water, so they don’t have much choice but to take it. So, the Euphrates project is there, but doesn’t provide the needed amount.”

Shexo still remembers what NES’ rivers were like in his childhood, he says, referencing how Turkey’s dam building has spelled disaster for them. “When I was a kid, I couldn’t even go to my local river so easily, because in the winter there would be floods. Even in the summer, the water would never dry out. My family had a garden and grew many kinds of vegetables to sell. There were fish in the river; we ate them. The region was generally vibrant. You could find everything you wanted: birds, fish, types of herbs whose names we don’t even know now. These rivers are gone now: no water, no fish, no gardens, no trees. The village I grew up in is empty. Turkey’s GAP project caused a big ecological change here, which in turn caused waves of displacement.” Shexo is angry that the Syrian government has not taken more action against Turkey’s dam building, but says he is resigned to the reality that “both governments – Syria and Turkey – agree on annihilating the Kurds and damaging these regions because the Kurds live here.” He continues, “Syria does not have a problem with such practices; whatever Turkey does, Syria does not interfere.”

In both interviews, Omer and Shexo stress the issue of societal mentality as important. Omer explained: “Mentality is the problem we face. We need to change, and it is difficult. I mean, to convince people to take care of what is around them, planting trees, not making places dirty, not throwing garbage. It takes time to teach this mentality. Regarding changing mentalities, this could best happen in schools, teaching the kids and the new generation.” Indeed, that is a big part of the work of Keziyen Kesk, which was set up in November 2020, Shexo tells RIC. “We want students to act in environmentally minded ways, not just theoretically but in practice, to cultivate an environmentally minded population. We give theoretical and practice classes. For example, we teach a teacher how to make a tree sapling. Then the students can learn how to do it. Alongside this, the students get lessons about trees and the environment. Then they will be able to better understand, as they see how their tiny sapling becomes a massive tree. Another important activity is gathering garbage and sorting it according to plastic and glass. This is also done with students, as part of daily environmental works, so it becomes part of the students’ mentality. If this happens, the students can themselves spread this mentality amongst their friends and family, take responsibility, make the needed changes, so it won’t only be a matter of one or two people, it could be a whole community working according to environmental standards. In short, this is what our schools project is based on, and this is just the beginning. It took one year for us to talk with the AANES Education body and for our proposal to be accepted. We have the aim of making schools the core of an environmental mentality and bring up a generation who takes care of the environment.” Omer too is in and out of schools, giving lectures, planting trees, and cleaning the school grounds with the students.

Within cities, ecological problems are particularly acute. Bave Barzan laments the rubbish on the streets in Qamishlo, saying, “In terms of garbage on the streets, before the revolution there was some garbage, but not at this level. There was not this much dirt, although there was tyranny from the State. I think this is connected to 12 years of war. We don’t want to have garbage in the city. We pay monthly for the municipality garbage service. We want our streets to be clean, free from polluting cars. We want clean nature and forests.” Omer rejects the notion that the municipality needed to do more to keep streets clean: “Responsibility for cleaning lies both in the hands of the AANES and the people. But to be honest, I don’t understand why the AANES should clean our streets or houses. No one can deny that the AANES works hard on these things; if they stopped working for one day, you can’t imagine what would happen. But the municipality doesn’t need to come and collect every person’s garbage and clean their surroundings. There is a garbage container in every neighbourhood. People should remove their own things and put their garbage there. Sometimes the municipality’s truck goes 3 times to one neighbourhood to gather up their garbage. The municipality doesn’t have so many workers, maybe 100 to 200. Meanwhile the people are big in number. We shouldn’t think in this way that the municipality workers should do everything. We shouldn’t learn that another person should come to clean on our behalf. I do see that the garbage containers are not enough, and there is no sorting. But it is a problem if we think the cleanliness of the street is just an issue for the municipality to solve.” Omer notes that the AANES does have environmental laws and regulations about trash disposal, but that implementation is minimal: “In the time of the [Syrian] regime, there was fear. The police were strict and people were afraid of breaking the law. Maybe this plays a role in people’s behaviour. The AANES is new and not strict towards this. There are municipality laws for cleanliness, including taking the garbage out, but implementation is so difficult. You can get fined, but it takes months in court and probably in the end you don’t pay anything. But the solution is not to be stricter. The solution is to speak with kids, teaching them why they shouldn’t spoil their surroundings. Cities are too big anyway to observe and catch every garbage thrower. But we will establish committees in the communes to help the municipality and spread and implement the laws around cleanliness.”

There are new waste management projects, Omer says. She brings up the issue of trash dumping in the long stretch of land between Heseke and Raqqa cities and tells of an upcoming project to remove all this trash, saying the planning is in the final stages. “The trash will be collected and taken to another place where it can be sorted. We are also having discussions with cooperatives about how they can be involved in this work. A transportation station will be built, so big trucks can take the garbage there.” There is also a project to implement specialized waste management strategies for hospital waste, although this is still in the early stages.

Keziyen Kesk take tree planting as a core priority. Upon founding, one of the team’s first activities was to research tree coverage in NES, looking at UN figures and trying to account for the decimation of trees since the Syrian Civil War. Shexo says that currently the team tries to find empty areas and make agreements with landowners to start planting saplings and establishing small arboretums. 10 such arboretums have been created so far. He explains that ISIS used forested places for training and many trees were cut or used for target practice or dried up through lack of water. In addition, many were sold to burn for heating.

Two new small forests have been established in Tirbespi and Qamishlo areas, says Omer. “This is something that gives us hope. Before we were planting 100, 200, 300 trees and seeing that as a big thing, but now we are talking 30,000, 40,000.” She also says that the opening of arboretums has been a big step, because previously the AANES had to bring trees from other places, such as Homs and Hama, where the soil and environment is different, therefore the trees struggle to survive in NES’ environmental conditions.

The scarcity of trees in NES has its historical reasons, says Shexo. “Before, the Syrian government did not allow for trees to be planted here in this region to make forests. Also, you couldn’t use your farmland to grow olives, for example. You had to just grow cotton and wheat. The government forced people to grow only that with the government needed to get richer. In the 90s, some people gathered to plant trees, I know them. The Syrian government intelligence took them and tortured them. If you showed this to the government, they would deny it. They would show documents that stipulate that for every well drilled, 30-50 trees should be planted.” Yet, Shexo says, there are around 2,000 wells here, but very few trees. He explains that government workers would be paid in exchange for letting the owners of wells not plant any trees. “They [the government] say that the people of this region have no environmental culture of planting trees. They won’t say that it was their own plans and policies that resulted in this situation.” Even now, the Damascus government presents obstacles to tree growing: “We tried to bring certain seeds here, but the government did not allow it. We tried to bring them in secret ways, but they lasered the seeds, killing their organic components, so when we planted them, they did not grow. This is one way in which this region is under siege. We are really forced to find regional solutions and not rely on the outside.”

The AANES are in the process of creating a laboratory to analyse air and soil pollution, Omer tells, which will help inform decisions about tree planting, because “we currently don’t have much specific information about how much and what kind of pollution there is”.

Nine months ago, Keziyen Kesk started a project with Jazira region’s village municipalities, also based on tree planting. Each municipality connects around 60 villages. “We visited each municipality in the beginning, to talk with them about the importance of working on environmental issues. They would say: “We have so many problems already”. It took us some time to convince the co-chairs of the municipalities”, explains Shexo. “We will be visiting them again, one by one, each municipality, staying with them a whole day to help them and do things with them. Our goal is that the municipalities themselves can give trees and saplings for free to the people of the villages.”

Shexo notes that people are reluctant to put in the work to slowly nurture a sapling to a tree. He links this to a desire for things that come easily and are prepared for you. Omer also brings up this issue, arguing that this is a relatively new mindset in this region. “A few years before the revolution, there was not this consumption of things that is seen today”, she says. “Today, things don’t last long. For example, the use of plastic is really dangerous. And things like ready-made food; everything pre-made, ready for you, coming from outside. Most imports come from Turkey, or also from Iran and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Things aren’t made here. It is like an attack: the imposition of quick life, urgent life, the influence of capitalism, the influence of outside lifestyles… these have really entered our life here. Everything is fast, urgent, consumption is high. People don’t know how to make food from scratch anymore or take care of animals or trees.” Omer says that her department conducted research on the contents of garbage bins. 60% of the trash was organic waste. “This means that people aren’t using all their food”. Meanwhile, “some people eat from the rubbish. This has happened during this time. Before, it wasn’t like this, people noticed each other, there wasn’t this difference between some people throwing away food and others eating it from the trash. There has been a change in this period. The influence of war, the influence of there not being enough to go around arrived.” She also references the issue of plastic trash, saying “now, every day, we are using so much plastic. In all places. The plastic becomes trash and becomes a problem, so we need to address this, solve it. But we also have to look at life a little; the form of human life has changed. Before, people were not like this. There are still many good examples. If you go a bit away from Qamishlo, go to a village, you will see a good life being lived, a life that doesn’t pollute so much, where people are one with their environment. They don’t have so many problems like there are inside the city where it is becoming hard to breathe. We have to work on building a better culture of consumption. This means education, changing mentalities, making people familiar. But time is required for people to adjust and to solve things.”

Omer brings up efforts made towards recycling of trash. Several small recycling centers established by individuals for themselves exist in the Jazira region, Omer recalls adding that there is also one recycling center in Manbij. One owned by the AANES is in Heseke. Two communes gather and sort their garbage, and send certain cardboard to the AANES recycling center, and send plastic to another factory. She reveals that the Barcelona local government has helped with education and training in terms of garbage sorting.

Omer is clear that oil is a problem in NES, but because things like cars and generators depend on oil, the opportunities for moving away from oil are scarce. Shexo elaborates on the history of oil production in Syria, explaining that while most of Syria’s oil extraction always took place in the oil-rich northeast, facilities for refining oil were only built near Damascus. “Any strategic facilities that were important to the Syrian government were never built in the Kurdish-majority regions”. When oil fields in the region fell into the hands of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and later ISIS, crude and makeshift methods for refining oil greatly proliferated, causing damage to the surrounding environment. Shexo says that under the AANES, this practice wasn’t shut down but continued. He tells RIC that a new refining station is being built, because currently there is only one refining station in NES, which was established to lessen the need to take oil to government-regions to be refined, but whose production is not enough for the whole of NES. “This new station will positively change the situation in terms of meeting energy needs here: there is a huge need for energy as the population is increasing, the cities are getting bigger, and displaced people from all other regions of Syria have come here to settle down. But in terms of the environment, it is harmful. The problem of eco-unfriendly refineries continues and greatly affects the environment. The Global Coalition and European countries should help us on this issue. For us as Keziyen Kesk, we say that we should put an end to oil use and base our strategy on clean energy and be the first administration to announce the stopping of the use of oil; we should be the first who calls for such an initiative, but currently the AANES is not in a good position to do this. Yes, it is true, there is war. A fight against ISIS and Turkish attacks and an embargo, but if we had a chance, we should go ahead with clean energy and use that instead of oil.”

Solar power is present across all of Syria, Shexo notes, especially in Damascus where there are some big stations, but in NES there are only smaller personal projects for individual houses. “Solar energy comes in levels. I personally work in this field. The requests we get [here in NES] are for individual houses rather than for providing electricity to villages for example. There are some discussions but nothing more regarding huge stations.” Yet there are many difficulties associated with this, such as the need for advanced technical equipment on a large scale, which is not available in Syria, and needs to be imported at a high cost and with great difficulty, he states. “We want to make them, we really want to start with these stations, because it is the reality of the future that we will have to use them, not just here but in all countries. We need to start with clean energy. The conditions here in Syria are good because the sun gives so much power. There are studies on such projects but currently nothing is in progress. People install personal solar panels but there are no projects on the level of villages of cities.”

Omer stresses the need for communes to play an active role in environmental initiatives: “What is important for the future is ecological projects in the communes. Currently there are two communes in Heseke involved in trash sorting. Democracy and ecology are intertwined actually. If a commune is able to make decisions and people are collaborating, these are important steps for achieving self-sufficiency. If people are working together you need less cars to transport things from far away. Since communes are our key actor here, we should give support to them. We are the regional municipality, but communes are also part of regional management. We complete each other and collaborate with each other. Our roles are according to our capabilities.” Importance is given to global environmental days, such as Earth Day, she says. Special activities or events with the communes are organized to mark these occasions.

The optimism Omer holds is clear throughout the conversation. “We have made steps”, she asserts. “To be honest, most people did not have a good idea about what ecology was prior to the revolution. This concept has developed so much with the revolution. This topic is becoming more interesting for people. I mean, it was not like this 4 or 5 years ago. Now, when you bring up this topic, people listen to you. Many people have started environmental initiatives or tree planting. I have been working on this, making initiatives and campaigns and I see that participation is high. In this way, ideas and beliefs start to spread in the community. In the beginning our projects were small, but they have been growing with time. We were very focussed on planting and protecting trees, but in the last year there have been bigger projects to solve problems in cities.”

Shexo also emphasizes that recent years have seen the proliferation of associations and initiatives related to the environment in NES. “Civil society more broadly has started to develop and work on ecological projects. Step by step, we have managed to make a group of some civil community associations that work for the environment. We want to put all the associations and organizations interested in the environment under one umbrella, so that our plans and strategy can be unified, especially since environmental protections are weak and not organized. If we gather together, we will be stronger.” Keziyen Kesk would like to have more collaboration with the AANES, Shexo says, and adds that more active environmental regulation is needed. “In our strategy, we involve all the people: students, the old, the young, schools, communes. The AANES should support and help us.” Outside of the AANES, Shexo says that Keziyen Kesk is searching for connections and communication with other environmental associations and organizations in Europe and America. “Many environmental organizations have been working for decades, but we are only starting, so we need education and training on many aspects. We need to participate in meetings about environmental protection at the world level. We would really benefit from this. In general, here, we are still in a war situation. Within this, we hope to be the voice of the environment.”

The situation of war, past and present, is continually brought up in all three interviews. “In NES, the war impacted everything so much”, says Bave Barzan. “When people ran out of fuel, they would go to cut trees. When electricity blackouts began to be so frequent, people needed generators. One of the reasons for the blackouts was the reduction of water flow in the dams.” Bave Barzan laments the need for generators. “I will now go to turn on the generator to have electricity”, he says, striding off to just outside his house where the neighbourhood generator is located, “but if the main electricity supply would come it would be better for the environment and civilians”. He also references Turkey’s cutting off the water flow entering NES, saying that the resultant poor functioning of NES’ dams limits the general electricity supply. “At the start of the Syrian Civil War, the electricity lines and stations were all damaged. It was 3 hours with electricity, 3 hours without. That winter was really difficult; people went to cut trees to burn on wood stoves. Then a wealthy family bought the generator for this neighbourhood. We are just responsible for running it and collecting the monthly money. In the city the generators produce smoke and pollute the streets. There is a long way to go to improve this. The city is full of noise and black smoke because of the generators. This affects the health of the people, but we are forced to use it because there is little electricity. The solution here is an improvement to the public electricity supply.”

“Ecology is a fundamental principle of the AANES”, says Omer, “but the AANES is always in a state of emergency. There is war.” She then brings up the topic of tree cutting at the hands of the SNA in Turkish-occupied Afrin. “In my opinion, Afrin is the most beautiful and green city. But you see what is happening there; almost half a million trees have been cut since it was invaded by Turkey in 2018. This is also a matter of mentality. The people who cut trees don’t know what the trees mean. They just came, saw them, and cut them without any hesitation. Turkey destroys the ecology there. How can you destroy a place or a region and kill people just for your interests, under pretexts like protecting your territories? The situation is so difficult there.”

“War also meant that educated people, engineers, people with environmental knowledge migrated away”, says Shexo.

For all AANES employees, Omer says that Turkish drone strikes hamper their work. “The ongoing Turkish attacks on our region are an obstacle”, she declares. “Recently the co-chair of the regional administration lost her life in an attack. I was shocked when I heard. What is the reason for Turkey killing her? Trying to build a community in which people can co-exist together? Employees of the AANES work hard, do their job, and then they get targeted and killed by Turkey. Imagine you are building something great for people and this is your reason for being killed. Every time these attacks happen, it limits our work for some time, as we fear going out too much. This means we don’t go out to see our projects, or attend meetings, because we don’t want to risk lives. It really affects us; it puts obstacles in front of our work. It is hard to work well in such circumstances.”

Water levels are falling in Syria’s largest reservoir, Lake Assad, created by the Euphrates Dam at Tabqa, on the Euphrates River in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. Tabqa city’s water board has reported that nine water supply stations have been rendered inoperative as a result of Turkey’s action of blocking the water flow of the Euphrates River.

The announcement was made after representatives from the Tabqa Democratic Civil Administration convened to discuss the matter.

Tabqa Water Board co-chair Hemud Shêx noted that Turkey has continued to deploy various inhumane tactics against the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES). He highlighted Turkey’s strategy of using water resources as a weapon of war, pointing out the significant decrease in water levels in reservoirs, including the Tabqa dam. As a result of these actions, the Tabqa dam has suffered a loss of 4 billion cubic metres of water.

Shêx further stressed that all nine water pumping stations are now completely out of service, leaving residents who rely on these stations without water. He urgently called on the United Nations to intervene and put an end to war crimes committed by the Turkish state, especially against the regions of North and East Syria.

Fishermen too are affected by the falling water levels. Fishermen around Lake Assad say that they “barely take in five percent” of their catch of former times, blaming low water levels and worsening pollution for the decline in fish stocks.

Meanwhile, three main electricity supply stations in Hasakah, 240km to the east, went entirely out of service on Sunday morning. This disruption was due to the collapse of six high-voltage towers in the southern outskirts of the city. Azad Suleiman, an official from the Transport and Energy Office of the AANES, stated that the towers collapsed between the 66 kV line, the Eastern Dam station, the Southern Dam station and the Tel Tamr converter station, rendering them inoperative.

The collapse of these high-voltage line towers is attributed to theft operations targeting their supporting corners, which are made of copper. Suleiman stressed that this is not a new occurrence, as towers in this region are persistently and repeatedly subject to theft. He further noted that just two days earlier, four other towers, supplying electricity to the city of Hawl and its surrounding areas, also collapsed for similar reasons. After rectifying this issue, they learned of the fall of the six additional towers, situated 5 km south of Hasakah city.

There are over 45 towers on this line that have faced extensive theft, and they are now on the brink of potential collapse due to the absence of the supporting corners. Suleiman mentioned that the stations in question are receiving a temporary emergency electricity supply from the Al-Shadadi converter station, situated south of Hasakah, until the issue is resolved. Maintenance and emergency teams are set to begin repair operations on Monday morning.

Hasakah’s infrastructure crisis is not limited to power shortages due to incidents of theft. Experts warn about the potential catastrophe awaiting the city and its residents. An expert in water resources, Trad Sheikh Ibrahim, has raised the alarm over the depletion of underground springs and wells, putting the city’s very existence at risk. With over one and a half million people depending on these water sources, the situation has become critical.

The city has been dependent on these water sources for more than four years, since Turkey’s decision to cut the city off from the Alouk water station in 2019.

Ibrahim highlighted the disastrous consequences of this decision, which left the city reliant on groundwater extracted from wells. The dire state of the water crisis has led the Autonomous Administration to classify Hasakah as a disaster zone.

Trad Sheikh Ibrahim’s warning of a potential migration of city residents to villages in search of water underscores the severity of the situation. As the city’s survival depends on immediate action to tackle the crisis and secure sustainable water resources, local residents and water experts have called for the international community, including the United Nations, to step in and address the water crisis in Hasakah.

And there is another crisis hitting Kurdish communities in NES; Turkey has been restricting the flow of water into an area already hit hard by climate change. As a result, in a place that relies heavily on agriculture, crops are failing, farmers are falling into debt and people are being forced to leave because of recurring drought.

But there is a ray of hope, particularly from the women of the area. A project called Water for Rojava, organised by the UK-based Solidarity Economy Association, crowd-funded £105,000 (US$127,000) in mid-2022 to assist women’s farming cooperatives re-irrigate lands suffering from drought. “We want to secure a good life for the women who will live in the village. There are 13 women running this project. Now we are digging and looking for water,” writes a spokeswoman from the Women’s Economic Committee in Derik, north-east Rojava, about a farming co-operative being assisted by the Committee.

With support from Water for Rojava, the Women’s Economic Committee has irrigated 75 hectares on a 450-hectare former state-run farm near Derik (estimated population 40,000) and 50 hectares near al-Hasakah (with a metropolitan population of over 600,000). “With water these communities can flourish again,” explains Sami Miran (we are using a pseudonym to protect his identity), who visited NES in October 2022 as part of delegation from Water for Rojava.

“Democracy without the state”

Kurdish-majority areas in northern Syria declared autonomy in 2012, during the second year of the ongoing Syrian war, in what is known as the ‘Rojava Revolution’. Building on principles from the Kurdish liberation struggle, the inhabitants of NES organise through democratic confederalism, “a social, political, and economic model of self-administration of different peoples, pioneered by women and the youth,” Kurdish academic and activist Dilar Dirik explained in ROAR magazine in 2016. “It is democracy without the state.”

In Rojava – which has an estimated population of four to five million people – political decisions are devolved to gender-balanced local councils, instead of power deferred to the nation state.

Women’s liberation and ethnic cohesion are key in Rojava. It officially changed its name from Rojava (meaning ‘West’ in Kurdish) to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria in September 2018, to reflect the mosaic of ethnicities and religions that live in the area. Women are central to the revolution; in addition to gender parity on all levels of decision-making, there is a strong commitment to ending violence and oppression against women.

Before the 2012 revolution, the Syrian government controlled massive state-run farms, part of which is what the co-operative near Derik use. “Standing there, all you see is the land stretching to the horizon,” recalls Miran, who visited the 450-hectare farm.

The Women’s Economic Committee, one of the regional-wide organising committees in NES, supports women’s co-operatives to rejuvenate these lands. “Women do everything from digging wells and pumping the water, to building climate resilient infrastructure, such as shade in warehouses or planting climate resilient crops. Then, women transport the crops [including wheat, fruit, vegetables and lentils] to market and sell it. As they work in co-operatives, there is no boss or underling. Profits are shared,” Miran says.

Man-made drought and water wars

“Drought is being caused by Turkey, the climate crisis and the local water policies [of the Syrian state before 2012],” explains Ercan Ayboga, co-author of Revolution in Rojava and an activist within the Mesopotamian Ecology Movement.

Ayboga says that Syria under the Ba’ath Party regime (which has been led by the al-Assad family since 1971) followed a policy of industrial farming that included full-scale deforestation and digging tens of thousands of wells. However, he suggests, it is possible to reverse this situation: “With vegetation, especially forests, water remains in the nature. It does not run off.”

Miran, who grew up in the area, reflects on what life used to be like in the ‘breadbasket of the Levant’: “This rich soil once grew olives, wheat, lentils, peas, cotton, beans and chickpeas – basically anything you sowed. It fed not only Syria, but Jordan, Turkey and further afield.”

Turkey stands accused of weaponising water against the Kurds by restricting its flow into NES. The Turkish state denies this, despite evidence such as Turkey’s dam building programme flooding and destroying Kurdish cities in Turkey, for example Hasankeyf in 2020.

“Turkey using water as a weapon is unique. I do not know of another state cutting water in such a systemic way for such long periods,” says Ayboga.

The Euphrates, a river of great regional and historical importance, begins in Turkey before flowing through Syria and Iraq, and is an essential life source for both downstream states. In 1987, Turkey committed to ensure that 500 cubic metres of water per second would flow into Syria. This is approximately half of what flowed prior to the 1960s, when Turkey started building extensive dams, irrigation and hydro-electric power.

Ayboga says that between 1987 and 2012 Turkey failed to keep this agreement only once, with the filling of its Atatürk Dam in the early 1990s. However, “since 2012, Turkey has only released 200-250 cubic metres per second, especially in the spring and summer, depriving [northern Syria of] water for irrigation.”

Since 2016, Turkey and Turkish-backed militias have occupied and attacked northern Syria, including occupying the canton of Afrin, displacing over 300,000 people. The Turkish-backed groups have since faced allegations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes. These attacks are part of a longer history of oppression against the Kurds that go back to the formation of the Turkish state in 1923. Turkey defines the Kurdish liberation struggle inside of Turkey as “terrorism” and it uses the same argument to attack NES .

Health concerns

In January 2023, Euphrates flow averaged 125 cubic metres per second, according to Hammoud al-Hammadi, an administrator at the Tishrin Dam in NES, the second biggest dam in Syria, speaking to the North Press Agency.

As a result of water deprivation, hydro-electric power generation – NES’s primary source of electricity – is grinding to a halt. According to Miran, people in the area now rely on fuel-powered generators, which cause pollution and respiratory illness. “If the Euphrates flowed [efficiently] that problem would disappear overnight.”

In fact, water scarcity is causing a number of health dangers. On 10 September 2022, a cholera epidemic was declared in Syria, impacting both NES and other parts of Syria. After over a decade of war, infrastructural damage is a major problem. One of UNICEF’s primary concerns is the Alouk pumping station, now in Turkish-occupied territory. They estimate that nearly one million people in NES rely on this source for potable water. During all of 2022, UNICEF reported that for 128 days, this station failed to pump any water at all, while it only partially worked on 54 days. To prevent further cholera epidemics, UNICEF proposes a “UN-led monitoring mechanism [at Alouk] to ensure uninterrupted services, and to provide maintenance support as required, which is currently under discussion.”

The Water for Rojava delegation visited Al-Hasakah city, a hotspot for the cholera epidemic, and one of the places where women are digging wells. “Cholera levels were dropping as they treated water from tankers with chloride,” Miran explains.

“The city needs the Alouk water station, but it often pumps no water. This is the situation since October 2019, when it became controlled by the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army. Instead, locals were drawing water from the Xabûr River. This was full of sewage from Turkey.”

Ground-up and geopolitical solutions

Another way that NES is attempting to resolve the water crisis is by reversing the legacy of Syrian government policies that focused on mono-cash-crops, especially wheat and cotton for export. “There are discussions across NES also about reducing [water] usage. The Economic Committees are also encouraging [fruit] tree planting for your own needs. Organisers are planting small forests around cities,” Miran says.

Ayboga thinks Turkey will not change course unless President Recep Erdoğan loses the planned May 2023 elections: “Their current strategy is to destroy infrastructure and reduce people’s access to water and food so that people get fed up, change allegiances or leave; they think that the fewer people who live [in NES] the better.”

Turkey has defended the legitimacy of its massive dam building, irrigation and other water projects as ways to bring economic development. Yet the Turkish government also denies a litany of abuses against Kurds and its evermore hardline authoritarian policies. These include killing Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, the banning of opposition parties, attacks on women’s rights, and a clampdown against critical media.

Ayboga suggests the US and its European allies can pressure Turkey to stop withholding water: “We know the US allowed Turkey to attack [border towns] Serê Kaniyê and Tell Abyad in 2019. Yet in the last months, reports suggest that the US pressured Turkey to halt its latest invasion [deeper into northern Syria]. The US and EU want a balance of forces [in the Syrian War]. They do not want Turkey to destroy this project [NES], but they do not want it to become too strong – politically, militarily or economically – either.”

Younes told North Press that drinking water will be drawn from the countryside of Amuda, northeast Syria, 62 km south to Hasakah city. The project has a price tag of $40 million.

The exact cost has yet to be determined, as “we do not know the type of water pipes that we will receive,” the official added.

Since 2019, Turkey has cut off water delivered from Alouk water station in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) to Hasakah and its countryside 27 times.

Alouk station is the only water resource feeding Hasakah and its countryside.

In 2019, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), launched Operation ‘Peace Spring’, occupying Sere Kaniye and its countryside.

Turkey’s cutoffs threatens about a million and a half people; cholera infections, too, have spiked in the region.

The project will provide each neighborhood with water once every week, according to Younes.

“Eighty percent of the project has been studied and it is awaiting the acquisition of the water pipes; 20 wells will be dug in the village of Sanjak Sadoun, south of Amuda,” the official said.

The AANES Executive Council of Jazira region put the project on its agenda for 2023 at a meeting held on January 8.

Previous failures

The AANES implemented two previous projects to solve the water scarcity problem caused by Turkey’s closure of Alouk.

One such project was that of Hemma wells, located northwest of Hasakah, which was meant to secure 50 percent of the needed water for the area.

The AANES launched the project in March 2022. At the time, it declared its intention to dig 50 wells at Hemma within 29 days, but the project was delayed to August. Once water began flowing from Hemma, it quickly ran out.

Back then, the AANES did not comment on the matter or release any statements concerning the reasons behind the project’s failure.

A second project involved pumping up water from the Euphrates River in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, south of Hasakah.

The AANES began construction in early 2022, and it was scheduled for completion within three months at an estimated cost of $1.5 million, according to an AANES statement at the time.

However, after 20 months on the project, water finally reached the Hasakah neighborhoods of al-Mufty and Salihiyah in July 2022 – but only for two hours – then water was cut off once more.

The Euphrates River project today covers only 15-20 percent of Hasakah’s water needs. In addition, its tanks need to be maintained, according to Younes.

There is as yet no date set for the completion of the new pipeline.

The invading Turkish state continues to use water as a tool of war against the people of the region, after all the invasion plans in the Northern and Eastern Syria regions were foiled. The invaders, who use water to put economic pressure on the Autonomous Administration, mostly target the Alouk Water Station and the Euphrates River.

The Turkish state and its mercenaries have been cutting off the water reaching Hesekê Canton from Alouk (Elok) Station for more than two years. Although agreements have been made for the delivery of water to Hesekê, the invading Turkish state and its mercenaries constantly violate them.

Millions of people in the Hesekê Canton have been suffering from lack of water after the occupation forces cut off water supply from the Alouk Station which they hold under their control.

“This crisis is not new; our water has been cut off since the occupation of Serêkaniyê. The Turkish state has used it as a tool of pressure to displace the local people,” a citizen named Welîd Şakir Ebdullah from Til Temir told ANHA.

‘WHY DO RUSSIA AND THE US REMAIN SILENT?’

“To solve this problem, we had to find alternative solutions, such as digging wells. Also, costs are high because water tankers are filled by their owners. This aggravates the water problem and causes the spread of diseases in the region,” Ebdullah continued.

Ebdullah condemned the silence of the international community towards the crimes committed by Turkey in the region. “What is the reason for the military presence of Russia and the US in our regions? They are turning a blind eye to our suffering.” he said.

DISEASES INCREASED

“The water cut at the Alouk Station has seriously affected the residents of the district. Many diseases have, therefore, spread in recent months. Many diseases such as diarrhea and enteritis have appeared because of dirty water,” Omer Mardo, a doctor at Şehit Lêgerîn Hospital in Til Temir, said.

IMPACT ON PRODUCTION

Eziz Xiro has been running a brick factory for 20 years. “The water shortage has affected every aspect of life. Factories cannot produce quality products due to the lack of water. Brick production is a good example. Without water, you cannot produce quality bricks,” Xiro said.

“We are faced with continuous water and electricity outages by the invading Turkish state and its mercenaries. This affects production and supply negatively,” Xiro added.

The Til Temir Water Works Directorate has taken some measures to deal with the water crisis.

“We draw water from underground wells in Til Erboş and Til Ruman villages near the Til Temir-Hesekê highway. However, after some tests, we stopped drawing water from wells. We found out that the water from wells was not good and caused diseases. Therefore, we requested the Autonomous Administration to drill new wells in Til Temir in order to redress the grievances of the people,” Xalid Mihemed Elo, Til Temir Water Department Head, said.

Elo condemned the international community’s silence against the water cuts. “If these states cannot provide us water, I do not believe they can maintain security and peace in the region,” he said.

The report aims to highlight the climate-conflict nexus impact on a more granular level among various rural communities in northeast Syria. Based on the many interviews and wider data on climate and socio-economic development, the report outlines how increased pressure on natural resources is impacting livelihoods, which could exacerbate growing social and political tensions among a society exhausted from conflicts and poverty. 

After a decade of war that has already had a destructive impact on agricultural infrastructure and resulted in displacement of farming and herder communities, this record-high drought is turning Syria into a new climate hotspot. Both rain-fed and irrigation agriculture are suffering from absence of precipitation. Lower water influx from Turkey resulted in decreasing water levels in Lake Assad, subsequentially affecting the Euphrates River, the regional main lifeline.  This meant less water for irrigation, hydroelectricity, and for personal use for the millions of people depending on it.  

In many areas PAX visited, there was zero vegetation growth in the spring and summer of 2021, meaning that the hundreds-of-thousands of sheep, cows, goats, and camels are lacking pastures for food and access water sources.  The pastoralist communities of Syria are increasingly struggling with the impact of climate change with lower prices for livestock and erratic weather conditions that impact livestock prices, pushing them over the brink over poverty.  

As one shepherd near Ras Al Ayn told PAX: “If there is no rain, there is no future.”  He lost 150 of his 400 sheep in 2021 and had to flee with his family from a previous grazing ground recently after shelling by the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA). He now spends most of his money on cattle feed to keep his sheep alive, as local communities don’t let him use their land for his sheep to graze. 

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), the defacto authorities in this part of the country, lack sufficient finances, capacity, and expertise to address these devastating climate and environmental challenges.  Farmers and herders lamented the higher prices for water tankers they increasingly depend on, and there are worrying signs of mounting tensions between water provider and their rural customers.  In a desperate attempt to find a better life, interviewees often expressed their desire to migrate as they fail to see a future for them in the broken countryside of Syria.  

The lack of rain and water in the rivers is also worsening the public and environmental health situation. On top of this, dams were built in the Khabur river in the spring of 2021, and the water flow to Hasakeh from the Alouk water station faced dozens of deliberate interruptions by the SNA, resulting in over 600,000 lacking access to water for longer periods. At the same time, the toxic oil industry keeps polluting local creeks and rivers by dumping contaminated wastewater, further impacting the surface and groundwater sources. Despite the political will to change the situation, the local authorities lack the proper equipment and financial resources to fix the ill-maintained oil infrastructure.  

This brief snapshot of the situation in the region both aims to highlight the current struggle among the most vulnerable groups and a warning signal that a solution needs to be found soon to prevent a fallback into further instability and violence. The unstable political situation of northeast Syria hinders a long-term sustainable solution to the many climate and security challenges this part of the country faces. Without a solution to the status of the region and security guarantees, international donors won’t commit to rehabilitation efforts and sustainable investments in the necessary infrastructure and socio-economic development. Addressing these contentious issues is key for the international community if it wants to prevent a further socio-economic decay driven by conflict and climate woes, which only breed fertile ground for extremism to flourish.   

Download the full report We fear more war, we fear more drought: How climate and conflict are fragmenting rural Syria. 

Images are available upon request.

Previous reports by PAX on Syria can be found here: 

• Amidst the Debris: A desktop study on the environmental and public health impact of Syria’s conflict. (Published in 2015)
• Scorched Earth and Charred Lives: Human health and environmental risks of civilian-operated makeshift oil refineries in Syria. (Published in 2016)
• A River of Death: How oil pollution is impacting health and livelihoods in conflict-affected northeast Syria. (Published in 2020)
• War, waste and polluted pastures.  An Explorative Environmental Study of the Impact of the Conflict in north-east Syria. (Published in 2021)

This coincided with a warning issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which it stated that Syria was suffering from the worst drought in 70 years during the summer.

The decline in agriculture production comes as war-torn Syria suffers from famine-like conditions in parts of the country with over 90% of the population living in poverty and more than 12.4 million people labeled as “food insecure” by the FAO.

The harvested wheat area is estimated at 787,000 hectares, slightly more than half of the area harvested in 2019, while the harvested barley area was 352,000 hectares, about 75% less than last year.

Agriculture in Syria accounted for 17.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Syria, according to 2010 estimates.

About 17% of the total workforce, or nearly 900,000 workers, worked in the agricultural sector.

The total lands of Syria is 18.5 million hectares, and the arable and forest area is about 6.5 million hectares, according to 2010 estimates.

Agriculture in Syria was the primary economic activity in Syria, as agricultural exports contributed an important share to foreign trade and the provision of foreign exchange.

It also provides a lot of raw materials for other various economic and industrial sectors. 

Previously, the agricultural sector ranked second after oil in terms of export revenues in the balance of Syrian exports.

Syria used to produce many agricultural products such as grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, field products, cotton, olives, pistachios and many others.

Food insecurity

In another report published by FAO on December 16, it seems that Syria is part of a larger problem, namely food insecurity in the Middle East.

About a third of the population in the Middle East is living in a state of food insecurity, in tandem with a rise in the level of hunger, which has reached 91.1% during the last two decades, the report said.

Victor Nylund, representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund in Syria (UNICEF), warned of the serious repercussions of this crisis.

“The insufficient flow of water from the Euphrates has a direct impact on the daily lives of millions of people,” Nylund said.

“We urgently need a conversation at the regional level to find a solution as soon as possible,” he stressed.

The lack of water is having serious consequences for more than just agriculture. According to UNICEF, poor water quality is leading to significantly more cases diseases such as diarrhea, especially among children. Low water levels also threaten the power supply. Around three million people in northeastern Syria get their electricity primarily from three hydroelectric power plants on the Euphrates River. 

Hasakah water crisis 

In Hasakah governorate, which was considered the food basket of Syria, the water crisis has become more severe.

The water crisis is even worse in the Hasakah region, which was in the past called the “breadbasket of Syria.”

It once produced around half of the country’s grain. Today, the reservoirs  have shrunk to large puddles where young men catch fish with their bare hands.

The city’s river, the Khabur, which is supposed to supply drinking water, has dried up due to the lack of rain.

All that remains for the people of Hasakah at the moment is the Alouk water pumping station near the Turkish border, which supply more than 460,000 people. However, this source is under threat, as for the last two years the waterworks, it has only functioned intermittently because Turkey has cut off the water. 

“The persistent interruptions of essential services to civilians in Syria are increasing. Ongoing disruptions to the critical Alouk water station in northeast Syria must stop,” UNICEF said last July.

The people in Hasakah now get their drinking water from large water tanks that are brought into the city on trucks. But the water is expensive: 1,000 liters cost around 6,000 Syrian pound (SYP) or about 2 euros ($2.25) — a lot of money in a region where the average salary is the equivalent of just €53 a month. 

Drought-like conditions 

The population in the northern and northeastern regions of Syria is still unable to have healthy and safe access to an adequate supply of potable water, due to environmental reasons due to conditions imposed by the long conflict, a UN report said in October.

According to the United Nations action plan on September 9 to address the water crisis, 5.5 million Syrians are in need of vital water supplies after the levels of the Euphrates River has decreased since last January. 

The lack of water flowing into the river from the source in Turkey, in addition to the lack of rain and the high average temperatures have led to the creation of drought-like conditions in northeastern Syria, the UN report said.

Syria currently ranks seventh on a global risk index of 191 countries most at risk of a humanitarian or natural disaster event that could overwhelm response capacity, in part due to the ongoing crisis which hinders adequate preparedness measures.

The drought, according to humanitarian organizations, has affected large agricultural areas that mainly depend on rainwater in a country where 60% of the population suffers from food insecurity.

“The 130-km pipes and the lifting stations, which have recently entered into service, are still under test, with the arrival of quantities of water to the tanks of the Aziziyah Water Station,” she told North press.

Early in 2021, Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) began the project to draw the Euphrates River water form al-Suwar station in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor to Hasakah, to which the Turkish forces have cut off water by stopping the operation of the Allouk station in the countryside of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) for about 20 times, since its control over the area in mid-October 2019.

Saleh pointed out that she cannot make any statement about the quantities of incoming water, the pumping system and its times, unless the works are fully completed and the investment system and its stability are checked, adding that the pumping mechanism will be determined later by the Directorate.

The project, which consisted of four phases, was scheduled to be completed within three months, in addition to the maintenance of al-Aziziyah water station, at cost of one and a half million dollars, according to a previous statement of the Autonomous Administration.

However, the emergence of many problems such as farmers and residents in the southern countryside drawing water illegally from the lines towards their homes or agricultural lands, in addition to the presence of blockages in the line, prevented the project from being completed within the specified time period.

The length of the lines from al-Suwar station in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor to the city of Hasakah is estimated at 130 km.

“This project is not an alternative to Alouk water station; rather, it is an emergency case to secure only about 15 percent of the water needs of the residents of Hasakah,” the co-chair of the Municipalities and Environment Committee in Hasakah region had previously told North Press.

Turkish occupation of a key water station is depriving people and farm fields of the water needed for life, and humanitarian aid cannot reach the people due to Russian pressure to close necessary border crossings. Furthermore, economic factors, such as the Caesar sanctions on Syria imposed by the United States, has caused our economy to collapse. The economic collapse means that our region simply cannot import food and water to cover the shortages.

This catastrophe was not inevitable. Despite the Syrian civil uprising, the North and East region of Syria had remained stable until early 2018, when Turkey decided to take advantage of the confusion of war and invade our previously-peaceful region. Once the Syrian government’s grip on our region had loosened, we were developing a democratic governance model, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, based on human rights, equality, women’s rights, decentralization, multiethnicity, and religious freedom. We were organized such that we were able to ally with the United States to drive ISIS out of our region. Turkey’s invasions were in response to the promising democratic model that we were building.

Today’s massive food shortages are a direct result of Turkey’s military occupation. The military invasion and occupation of October 2019 spurred the occupation of the Alouk water station, which serves roughly one million people and a vast region to the south and east of the station.

Once the water station had been captured, Turkish-backed militants with the so-called “Syrian National Army” began depriving the region of water. They have dramatically reduced the water flow, and they have turned the water off entirely for petty political reasons, leaving one million people, including children, without water at all. 

In addition, Turkey has been reducing the flow of the Euphrates River, making it impossible for farmers downriver to water their fields. We must pressure Turkey not to use water deprivation as a weapon of war. 

Children have been dying from drinking polluted water, desperate to quench their thirst in the summer heat that is reaching over 45 degrees Celsius — 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Lower-than-average rainfall has made the situation even worse. The people cannot even collect enough rainwater to drink, as their ancestors may have long ago.

When everyday people do not even have water to drink, farmers do not have water for their fields. Wheat crops are failing. In an average year, our region produces 600,000 tonnes of wheat. This year, we are already seeing yields that are less than half that amount.

Humanitarian aid organizations might want to provide food assistance to our region. However, Russia has ensured that our main United Nations border, the al-Yaroubiah border, has remained closed. Russian officials want to ensure that their allies, the Syrian government, retain control of the supplies passing into Syria, so they have vetoed the renewals on vital border crossings by the UN Security Council. They have cut off our lifeline.

Under better circumstances, the administration of our region would purchase grain and water to fulfill the needs of our people. But our economy has crashed, due mostly to the Caesar sanctions imposed on Syria after the “Caesar Act” passed US Congress. US officials intended for the sanctions to exert pressure on the government of Bashar al Assad. But for our region, the sanctions have backfired, making it nearly impossible for us to get any supplies into the region — whether we purchase them or whether an organization wishes to donate them. Our currency has dropped 750 percent since the latter half of 2019, due in large part to the Caesar sanctions. We cannot simply purchase grain for our people from neighboring countries.

The result of all of these actions committed by other countries is that our people are going hungry and thirsty.

If the international community wishes to save the lives of our people and end these injustices, they should: pressure Turkey to set a timetable for withdrawal of its forces from its region and cease its support for the militias of the so-called “Syrian National Army;” call upon Russia to vote in favor of re-opening the al-Yaroubiah UN border crossing into Syria; pressure US officials to enact an exemption to the Caesar sanctions for North and East Syria; facilitate humanitarian aid flows into our region, and; officially recognize North and East Syria as a necessary part of the solution to the Syrian crisis.

In order to keep our region as a breadbasket for the Syrian people, we call upon the international community to act to end the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in our region.

The Turkish state’s hostility to North and East Syria has been open and brazen for years, with several military interventions leading to the occupation of hundreds of square miles of Syrian territory, along with the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians and deaths of dozens. 

Most recently, media outlets around the world had reported on Turkey’s “Operation Peace Spring,” which targeted the areas around Ras-al-Ayn and Tal Abyad with occupation late in 2019. Despite this being the most recent Turkish military offensive, the Turkish war on North and East Syria has continued unabated through several means, including through the manipulation and weaponization of the region’s water supply. 

During the 2019 “Peace Spring” Offensive, pro-Turkish forces captured the Alouk water pumping station near Ras-al-Ayn. This station services hundreds of thousands of residents in North and East Syria, especially around Hasakah, and several camps that each house tens of thousands of refugees and displaced residents. In 2020 alone, the station has been shut off sixteen times, and when it is running, it is typically only at partial capacity. According to Heyva Sor, three pumps out of ten are currently being used.

The water levels of the Euphrates have dropped drastically due to the conduct of the forces in control of the Alouk station. This has affected both the amount of water available and the quality. Dozens of people have been hospitalized with illness due to drinking contaminated water, and thousands of families in the region have had to rely on trucks to deliver drinking water. 

The drop in water levels has led to the price of water skyrocketing by 200 percent or more in the past year, despite many families living on less than two dollars a day. Furthermore, much of the region’s electricity comes from hydroelectric dams, such as the Tishrin and Tabqa dams. Due to less water flow, the electricity supplied each day has been reduced from sixteen hours to eight. 

On top of all of this, the region is suffering from drought and lack of rainfall to begin with, and as such, the artificial tampering with the Euphrates water levels has an even greater effect.

When combined with the continuing depreciation of the Syrian lira, the COVID-19 pandemic, and embargoes by various neighboring states, the weaponization of water by Turkey has exacerbated an already crisis-stricken region, worsening the economic situation for Syria’s breadbasket, and placing the millions of Syrians already at great risk due to COVID-19 at an even greater risk with a lack of access to clean drinking water, as well as severely limiting the amount of electricity for the average household.

For the United States, the goal of the continued presence of American troops in Syria is to continue the partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces in order to permanently defeat Daesh, or ISIS. While the ISIS “caliphate” was militarily defeated in March 2019, and ISIS cells continue to be targeted and dismantled every week, military efforts alone will not be enough to destroy the ISIS organization and its ideology. 

ISIS was born largely out of instability and a power vacuum that resulted in a lack of security and basic services for the region. Severe economic issues such as the Turkish siege on North and East Syria’s water supply will act as counterproductive factors to the ongoing military campaign against ISIS and terrorism in general. Organizations such as these thrive on people’s dissatisfaction and lack of basic services, and as long as economic issues that affect people’s day-to-day lives, such as Turkey’s weaponization of water, are left unaddressed, they will continue to act as a counter-balance to the stability brought on by the anti-ISIS military campaign.

While this is happening, the international community has not lifted a finger, but rather continues to remain silent.

What is the purpose of humanitarian organizations when they do nothing? and what do human rights mean in this context? What is the benefit of their presence while they watch thousands of innocent children being deprived of their most basic rights? Is it not enough that they have suffered from poverty, disease, and displacement, and the negative impact of the war? Is it not enough that all of this has left a detrimental impact on their psyche and deprived them of living in peace?

Who is responsible for this?

The problem began with Turkey in the twenties of the last century, and discussions are still continuing between Iraq and Syria on the one hand, and Iraq and Turkey on the other, in order to find agreement on how to use the river waters without harming the interests of other countries.

A tripartite committee was set up in order to find a basis for establishing a fair sharing treaty. However, Turkey refuses to make any agreement for sharing water, ignoring international law, which stipulates that the river is considered international if its basin passes through the territories of different countries. In this case, each country practices its sovereignty in their own territories over which the river passes, taking into account the interests of other countries.

It is not permissible for any country to undertake any project on the river basin that would harm or infringe upon the rights of other States, which is one of the principles adopted by the International Court of Justice in Lahay in 1974 to resolve international disputes over water.

In this legal text it is emphasized that, “Any actions that lead to environmental damage in the riparian countries” are “prohibited”, yet Turkey invokes a justification for not having an agreement to share the water, instead of providing special explanations to the international law on sharing river water with the riparian countries.

Turkey refuses to include the Tigris and Euphrates basins within the concept of international rivers but considers them ‘cross-border’ rivers, which, as a concept, does not exist in name under international law. According to this concept, Turkey considers the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as water owned by the Turkish State and therefore has every right to act over them however they wish, denying the historical rights acquired thousands of years ago for both Iraq and Syria. Therefore, Turkey has begun planning and implementing many water projects on these rivers, ignoring the rights of neighboring countries.

Among these projects is the huge GAP project (the project of reviving the southeastern Anatolia region), which led to a decrease in the flow of the Euphrates water to Iraq by about 75%. The project faced rejections from both the Iraqi and Syrian sides, and the European Union stopped its funding because it will cause the destruction of archaeological areas within Turkey itself, as is what happened in the case of the city of Hasankeyf in Diyarbakir region near the border with Iraq. This project is considered an endeavour to build the Turkish economy – a mainstay to strengthen its geopolitical weight and power in the region and thus will impact various aspects of life in Iraq and Syria.

The impact of the Turkish water policy on Syria

For several years, Turkey has been cutting off water to the Syrian regions and depriving it of its share of the agreed water, with the aim of starving the Syrian people, destroying agricultural wealth and striking the Syrian economy. Turkey is still continuing its inhumane practices in the region through supporting its affiliated armed factions in Serekani (Ras al-Ain), while cutting off water on the city of Hassaka and its western countryside.

Turkey targets and forbids workers from operating “Alouk” water pumping station in the countryside of Serekani, which is the main source of feeding the city of Hassaka and its countryside, the towns of Abu Rassen, Tal Tamr, Shaddadi, and Al-Hol camp. This camp houses 62,000 displaced people, in addition to the Washokani camp, which houses about 12,000 displaced people and Areesheh camp which is inhabited by about 13,000 displaced people.
It is worth noting that it’s not the first time that Alouk station has been stopped. It has already been stopped for several reasons, including the shelling of Turkish artillery, the power being cut off, or the station workers being prevented from entering it. However, an agreement was reached on restarting the station to return to work on 17th December, 2020, several months before before the crisis.

Turkey continues its inhumane violations, as it’s currently working to confine the river’s water for more than five meters from its level, as four meters reach the Tishreen Dam lake, and in the Euphrates Dam lake, the decline is more than three meters. The quantity is less than what was agreed between Syria and Turkey in 1987, which is 500 cubic meters per second to the Syrian territories, while Iraq gets about 60% of this amount.

Consequently, the decline of water in the Euphrates River caused the suspension of 7 drinking water stations in the western and eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, as the stations of Al-Sa`wa, Al-Buseyrah, Al-Riz, Sweidan, Hajin and Al-Susah stopped working.

Water confinement threatens thousands of hectares of agricultural land planted with summer vegetables, while the region witnesses a heatwave that leads to damaging crops due to prioritizing thirst, in line with the difficult living conditions in those areas.

The low level of water in the riverbed, especially in the summer months, leads to the death of fish and other organisms such as shellfish, and the dead bodies also cause organic pollution as well as economic losses.

In Raqqa governorate, there are several drinking water stations that depend directly on the Euphrates River to supply water to the population. They are the Al-Raqqa station near the city, Al-Jazra station in its western countryside, and a third station in the Karama area, east of Raqqa.

Day after day, the risk of environmental pollution increases in areas where water drop is causing diseases, especially for children, such as typhoid fever, enteritis, and diarrhoea, and some cases may have developed into cholera.

The impact of Turkish water policy on Iraq

The confinement of the water of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers did not affecte Syria only, but also Iraq, so the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources announced that the Turkish side had reduced the levels of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to half, which led to decline of the level of two rivers inside Iraq, in conjunction with Iran cutting a number of important river tributaries by diverting their natural course.

The goal behind Turkish control of water resources

Turkey and Iran are using water as a weapon against humanity, using it to bargain over the lives of millions of civilians, putting extra pressure on the region, and putting it under their control. Turkey’s water policy is linked to the political decision of the State and found in the water paper a means to achieve its political and economic ambition to become a major regional power in the Middle East region.

Its construction of dams has a severe impact on the region and the environment and will cause a lot of defects on both Syria and Iraq as well as Iran, as the project will lead to the destruction of agricultural lands, drought, and power outages as a result of the inability to generate electricity from Iraqi and Syrian dams, and death of fish and livestock, desertification, as well as dust and air pollution.

Therefore, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross must fulfill their tasks which allows it to be present in the field of work and act without delay, to rectify the difficulties because the nature of these conflicts urges them to increase their initiatives and find appropriate solutions, fast.

On this basis, the International Committee work is indispensable for helping the population impacted by the armed violence, as well as for the departments concerned with repairing damaged water installations and providing technical expertise when necessary because the survival of these residents and operating their production system depends on water.

It’s the responsibility of the United Nations, international committees, and humanitarian and human rights organizations to put an end to the practices of the Turkish State in Syria and Iraq, and to intervene urgently to find a solution to this unfortunate humanitarian catastrophe.

Zeyneb Haji
Member of the Diplomatic Relations Committee, Kongra Star