Drought forces thousands of Syrian families to leave home

Thousands of people have been made homeless by Syria’s worst drought in decades. After a two-year drought and years of misuse by farmers, the river Euphrates, which runs through the country, is running dry. Flowing from Turkey, through Syria and Iraq, the Euphrates so central to feeding those families who live along it, that the Book of Revelation predicted its drying up as a sign of the end of time. The river’s drying up has wrecked farms along its banks, leaving fishermen impoverished and running down riverside towns as people flee to the cities looking for work. Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned to baked dirt. Canals have dwindled to shallow streams, and fishing boats sit on dry land.

The drought has forced between 200,000 and 250,000 Syrian farmers and their families to abandon their land in the past three years according to a recent United Nations study. "I lost two-third of my cattle after the water wells dried up," said Mohammed Okla, who fled the badly-hit eastern Hasaka province five months ago and now lives in a tent with his two wives and 15 children next to the main garbage dump in Damascus. Since the drought started Okla's family have gone from wheat and cattle farmers into virtual refugees. His barefooted children play among scraps of metal and trash pulled from a tip. "We can hardly buy bread and tea to feed ourselves, he told Reuters news agency. “No government official sees us. We received no help," he said.

Syria relies heavily on farming for its income. Sales of wheat, olive oil, cattle and fruit and vegetables contribute 20 percent of its $45 billion GDP, and about half of its 20 million population earn their income from agriculture. Rivers and wells in the country have been drying up and drought and mismanagement of water resources have hit farming hard, especially in the Hasakah region bordering Iraq. The drought now covers over 60 percent of Syria's land mass and 1.3 million people have been affected so far, with most of those made homeless arriving in regions around Damascus, Aleppo and Hamah, a recent United Nations study said. And with all three countries along the river now facing the prospect of an even drier climate, calls have been made for a coordinated water policy for the Middle East. But in a region where demands for water by ballooning populations have soared, political tensions and rivalry make if doubtful whether a water policy is even possible.

In Syria, the situation has become so bad that the government recently asked for international aid and given cash handouts to farmers' families to try to prevent them leaving home.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children