Barren fields, dry wells: After war, drought ravages Syrian farms

• Syrian farmers face severe drought after years of war
• Digging wells adds costs as harvests fail
• Many farmers have heavy debts, want assistance

AL-NASHABIYAH, Syria - When Bashar al-Assad ruled Syria, the farmers of al-Nashabiyah, once a hotbed of rebel opposition to the brutal president, struggled to water their crops because army officers diverted rivers and canals to their own farms.

The farmers hoped for some reprieve after Islamist rebels ended Assad's 24 years of autocratic rule in December, but a devastating drought and continued water theft mean their crops are still dying, their pears and plums withering on the branch.

The regime fell and we were hoping that our share (of water) would come, but it did not come," said Mahmoud al-Hobeish, al-Nashabiyah's deputy mayor standing beside a dirt-clogged, garbage-littered irrigation canal.

He said people and companies were diverting flows from shared waterways for their own use, leaving al-Nashabiyah's farmers wanting.

This is critical as Syria's worst drought in decades takes a devastating toll on this agricultural region east of the capital city Damascus.

Hobeish said the area being farmed had decreased tenfold in the past year, while production was down 90% compared to last year. Farmers are having to spend more money to dig wells, but even then they do not get enough to water their crops.

Hobeish is around $4,000 in debt.

"People are asking for it and they know I cannot pay," he said.

The drought, which the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform says is the worst since 1958, is a devastating blow to a country already brought to its knees by more than 13 years of civil war, diplomatic isolation and Western sanctions.

Droughts have plagued Syria for decades, but few have been as dramatic as this year.

Water reserves are down by more than 60% compared to previous years and levels in dams in March were lower than the last two years, the ministry said. Some regions lost more than 70% of their groundwater reserves.

The drought could lead to the failure of around 75% of wheat crops this year, threatening the food security of millions, the Food and Agriculture Organisation's Syrian representative told Reuters in May.

In al-Nashabiyah, Mati Mohammad Nasser said he expected to lose his whole harvest of wheat, pears, plums and other fruits and vegetables.

"We were ruined this year," Nasser told Context as he surveyed his barren fields. "We have lost hope. We sold everything we had and invested it into the land."

Generational trauma

The European Union and the United States said in May said they would lift sanctions on Syria. The country's new government said this could allow fertilisers and irrigation technology to be imported.

But this will not help Nasser now. He fears he will have to sell some of his land and livestock to make ends meet.

He usually picks around 200 kg of pears a year from trees he has raised from seedlings. But this year, he plans to chop down the dead trees and use them for firewood.

He has already paid almost $2,000 to dig a deep well, but the water was just a couple of centimetres deep.

"What are we supposed to do with that?" he asked.

Farmers are not the only ones struggling.

In the capital Damascus, people are rationing their consumption of water, even in affluent neighbourhoods after the government restricted supply this year.

In Douma, a town on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus that was also a rebel stronghold during the civil war, Abu Yassir, who runs a farm supply store, said the drought meant business was down about 30% this year.

Even during years of siege by government forces, Yassir said he never had to import seeds as he was able to source everything from the surrounding region, an agricultural hub.

But this year, local markets are depleted and he has had to import agricultural supplies like barley and increase prices by around 25%.

"Things have become expensive," he said in a telephone interview. "People who used to be keen to buy and had a lot of livestock are now forced to drive down their spending."

In al-Nashabiyah, Kassim Ibrahim al-Saghir has been forced to scale back work on his farm, and if rains do not come soon he said he would have to sell some of the land that has been in his family for generations. He has lost more than 90% of his crops this year.

"We have daily losses," the 67-year-old. "There is no harvest this year."

(Reporting by Nazih Osseiran; Editing by Jon Hemming.)