Drought parches Idlib governorate
Drought has dried up the Duwaisat Dam reservoir, west of Idlib, hitting farmers hard.
ALEPPO — Syrians in opposition-controlled areas in northwestern Syria are watching in alarm as groundwater levels drop, threatening their main source of drinking water and irrigation.
A decline in rainfall in 2020 and this year's drought have dried up the Duwaisat Dam Lake in the Jisr al-Shughur area in the western countryside of Idlib governorate, which is under the control of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a first since the dam was established nearly three decades ago.
Mohammed Nehmeh Amhan, head of the Investment Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in the HTS Salvation Government, told Al-Monitor that the reservoir “normally irrigates 300 hectares of orchards and fields where farmers planted fruit trees such as pomegranates, peaches, olives and peaches, in addition to vegetables of all kinds.”
He lamented that the reservoir fell significantly in 2020 and even more dramatically in 2021. It could "only irrigate 1,500 hectares of orchards and fields before it completely dried out.”
