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Critical Response and Funding Requirements - Response to the Water Crisis in Syria (August 2022)

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Сирия
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OCHA
Дата публикации

Executive Summary

Climatic induced and human-caused shocks affecting natural resources, particularly water, continue to intensify and exacerbate the humanitarian situation in Syria. Insufficient and poorly distributed rainfall, severe drought conditions combined with low water levels in the Euphrates River and damaged water infrastructure have not only reduced access to water for drinking and domestic use for millions of Syrians, but also triggered substantial harvest and income losses, an increase in water-borne diseases and malnutrition rates and additional protection risks, especially for women and girls.

In September 2021, the UN and its partners presented a response plan to mitigate the impact of the water crisis in northern and north-east Syria which requested US$200 million to assist up to 3.4 million of the over five million people estimated to be affected by the water crisis in northern Syria between September 2021 and February 2022. Under the auspices of the 2022-2023 Syria Humanitarian Response Plan, this updated water response plan presents the most recent needs based on latest forecasts and is a continuation of the earlier plan presented in 2021. It covers the needs from all response modalities/areas1 for Syria, aims to assist 5 million people until December 2022 and requests $226.2 million.

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)2 ,
Syria is affected by a severe and long-term drought, with poor vegetation conditions reflecting persistence of drier-than-normal precipitation seasons. Water deficits has been exacerbated by the unusual dry conditions during the rainy season (October–May), but also by abnormally high temperatures. Climate change is causing temperatures to rise, exacerbating the drought and increasing evaporation from soils, water reservoirs and rivers, as well as transpiration and water demand from plants, which was forecasted to continue into the hot and dry season from July to September.

More than eleven years into the crisis in Syria, water systems suffer collapse and damage affecting communities’ access to safe drinking water and water for irrigation. According to a June 2022 water mapping assessment, a critical three per cent of all populated communities do not have sufficient access to their primary water source in the last 30 days. According to population estimates,3 more than 850,000 people had access to their primary water source for only 1-2 days in June.

A further 24 per cent of populated communities reported that they rarely had sufficient access to their primary water source, meaning that an estimated 6.9 million people only had access to their primary water source between 2-7 days per month.4 Water insufficiency is forcing households to resort to negative coping mechanisms, such as changing hygiene practices or increasing household debt to afford water costs.5 The lack of availability of water leaves affected communities, in particular women and girls, more vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian and non-traditional actors involved in providing humanitarian assistance and who seek to take advantage of the imbalance of power over resources.

In addition to the structural damage to water networks and the growing economic crisis leading to unaffordable water costs, Syria is one of the water-scarce countries in in the MENA region6 with an average of 675 m3 of available water resources per capita. Water scarcity, as outlined in this plan, is exacerbated by the following climatic and human-caused factors:

• low water levels of the Euphrates River since January 2021, following low water flows into the Syrian portion of the river and the principal water reservoirs in north-east Syria;

• a severe and long-term drought, with poor vegetation conditions and below-average precipitations during the 2021/2022 winter season;7

• continuous recurring shutdowns and reduced operational capacity of the Alouk water station;

• disruptions and shortages in power supply that affect the water supply systems’ performance.

The water scarcity situation described in this plan has implications for most humanitarian interventions, and affects food production and food security, especially given the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events caused by climate change. Water scarcity has affected crops and agricultural livelihoods, worsening access to food and contributed to driving up the price of food and commodities.
The water crisis further exacerbates dire conditions for the 12 million people facing acute food insecurity and increases the risk of 1.9 million people slipping into food insecurity

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.