Syria's driest winter in nearly 70 years triggers a severe water crisis in Damascus

Vallada Valley, Syria – Hassan Bashi walks through tunnels on a mountain above the Syrian capital that were once known for its pure water filled with water.

Spring rises in the ruins of a Roman temple in the Valadal valley and then flows to Damascus, which has provided drinking water for thousands of years. Usually, during the winter flood season, water fills all the tunnels and washes in most parts of the temple.

Now, after the driest winter in decades, there is only one drop of water.

Bashi is a guard, but he also knows how to operate the pump and water filter machine without the engineer in charge, and he shows an old video on his high water level phone in his ruins.

“I worked at Ein al-Fijeh Spring for 33 years, and it was Dry's first year,” Bashi said.

Spring is the main source of water for 5 million people, providing 70% of the water to Damascus and its suburbs.

With the city’s worst water shortages in years, many now rely on buying water from private tanker trucks rich in Wells.

Government officials warned that the situation could worsen in the summer and urged residents to use very little water when bathing, cleaning or washing dishes.

“Ein al-fijeh Spring is now at its lowest level,” said Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus Urban Water Service.

He said the channels that the Romans had been there since the day two years ago improved in 1920 and then again in 1980.

Darvish said spring water mainly comes from rainfall and snow melting along the border with Lebanon, but due to below average rainfall this year, “it gives us much more than usual.”

He said there are 1.1 million homes starting in the spring and people will have to reduce their consumption in order to spend the year.

The Valadala River, which cuts the capital, is also fed in the spring. Most of this year are dry.

In the eastern part of Damascus, Bassam Jbara felt shortage. With the taps in previous years, his neighbor could only drink water for about 90 minutes a day.

He said the ongoing power cuts made the problem worse because they sometimes had water but were not able to pump it to tankers on the roof of buildings. Jbara once had to buy five barrels of undrinking water from a tanker truck, which cost him and his neighbors $15, a country where many earn less than $100 a month.

He said: “From what we've seen, we're going toward difficult conditions about water. He's already saving.

“The people of Damascus are used to drinking water every day and drink tap water from Ein al-Fijeh in spring, but unfortunately, spring is weak now,” Jabbara said.

During the 14-year conflict in Syria, Ein al-fijeh suffered multiple shellings, changing between then-President Bashar Assad and the insurgents.

In early 2017, government forces occupied the area from the rebels and continued it until December, when the five decades of Assad dynasty knocked down the stunning offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Group or HTS, the current President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.

Tarek Abdul-Wahed returned to his home near December, near December, and is now rebuilding the restaurant he owns eight years after he was forced to leave with his family. Assad left the area, it was blown up by Assad's troops.

Abdul-Wahed looks at the arid areas once filled with tourists and Syrians who come to enjoy the cooler weather in the summer.

“The spring of Ein al-fijeh is the only artery in Damascus,” said Abdul-Wahed. Reconstruction is underway in the restaurant, which is underway to help 15 families living nearby make a living in addition to employees from other parts of Syria.

“It looks like a desert now. No one is there,” he said. “We hope the good times of the past come back here.”