More than a million Syrians are enduring the driest winter in decades, the fifth consecutive season of droughts and crop failures which have forced tens of thousands of farming families to abandon their land. Above, a beduin man at a water collection point, in eastern Homs governorate.
More than a million Syrians are enduring the driest winter in decades, the fifth consecutive season of droughts and crop failures which have forced tens of thousands of farming families to abandon their land. Above, a beduin man at a water collection point, in eastern Homs governorate.
More than a million Syrians are enduring the driest winter in decades, the fifth consecutive season of droughts and crop failures which have forced tens of thousands of farming families to abandon their land. Above, a beduin man at a water collection point, in eastern Homs governorate.
More than a million Syrians are enduring the driest winter in decades, the fifth consecutive season of droughts and crop failures which have forced tens of thousands of farming families to abandon the

Fifth dry season has Syria facing 'disaster'


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  • Arabic

DAMASCUS // More than a million Syrians enduring the driest winter in decades are facing "disaster", a United Nations agriculture official has warned.

Syria's eastern "breadbasket" region has already suffered four consecutive years of drought and crop failure, forcing tens of thousands of farming families to abandon their land.

International aid agencies launched relief efforts last year, distributing food and drinking water to an impoverished and malnourished population.

But hopes that this winter's rainy season would bring needed respite are rapidly dwindling. Rainfall has been even lower than in the harsh drought years of 2007 to 2009.

"I'm really scared," Abdulla Tahir bin Yehia, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Syria, said on Tuesday. "During the previous droughts, rain was far below average, but there was still some.

"This year, until now, zero; we've had nothing."

He said the absence of rain in the eastern regions until so late in December, traditionally the middle of Syria's wet season, was unprecedented and warned that farmers, unable to recover from the previous four years, could not tolerate another blow.

"If this year there is serious drought, it will be disaster, it will really be a disaster," Mr bin Yehia said. Steady rain in the next two weeks would limit the damage, he said, but it would still be too late for some. "It's a critical situation now. Farmers are counting down the hours and days before it gets too late for them to plant a crop."

There was heavy rain and snow in western Syria this month, so severe that ports were closed, roads cut off and homes flooded. But the rain scarcely made it out to the provinces of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor and Hasika - known collectively as the Jazeera region.

The Jazeera region is instead struggling with dust storms thrown up by the strong winds. There were light showers in parts of Hasika, but nothing significant.

Mr bin Yehia said there was still a need for emergency assistance in parts of the Jazeera, and that he expected the FAO to extend its current aid programme for at least the next six months.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which has been leading aid efforts in the Jazeera, extended its emergency appeal in September.

Aid programmes have been hampered by a lack of money. UN relief projects this year received less than half of the requested funding. The FAO, which provided seed and animal fodder to 13,000 farmers too poor to buy their own, received only 15 per cent of the money it had sought.

"Our appeal was seriously underfunded and the problems we were trying to solve then are being repeated, in almost the same areas. It's the same people needing help," Mr bin Yehia said. The FAO had considered launching a new emergency appeal for 2011, he said, but had scrapped the idea because the response by international donors to the 2010 programme had been so poor.

In September, during a rare mission in Syria, Olivier de Schutter, a special rapporteur from the UN human rights council, said the limited international reaction to urgent aid programmes in the country had been unacceptable given that children of Syrian farmers were starving.

"In times of emergency, when lives may be irremediably broken, weeks cannot be lost in seeking assistance of donors," Mr de Schutter said.

His preliminary report, which was issued when he visited the area in September, concluded that 1.3 million people had felt the effects of the drought, with 800,000 severely affected. About 60,000 families had fled the countryside for urban centres, leaving 160 villages abandoned, he reported.

Farming areas close to the Euphrates River or with access to underground reservoirs have survived better than zones dependent solely on rain.

Rain-fed lands cover much of the Jazeera however, and are home to at least 50,000 families, according to UN estimates, including nomadic shepherds.

The latter were given a brief reprieve after three years of drought in the winter of 2009/2010, when rain fell and vegetation grew. Settled farmers were not so lucky, however, with temperature fluctuations and poorly distributed rain wiping out as much as 50 per cent of the wheat crop.

"We have had three years of drought, then this year there was crop failure, so if we have a drought again now, it will have been five awful years, one after the other," Mr bin Yehia said. He said that rather than ease in coming years, the situation in the Jazeera was likely to worsen.

"We need a long term recovery programme to run alongside emergency aid efforts," he said. "There have been repeated drought and rainfall distribution problems over the last five years and this will continue, if it's not aggravated even more."

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Under 12 – Minerva Academy

Under 14 – Unam Pumas

Under 16 – Fursan Hispania

Under 18 – Madenat

The National's picks

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Where to donate in the UAE

The Emirates Charity Portal

You can donate to several registered charities through a “donation catalogue”. The use of the donation is quite specific, such as buying a fan for a poor family in Niger for Dh130.

The General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments

The site has an e-donation service accepting debit card, credit card or e-Dirham, an electronic payment tool developed by the Ministry of Finance and First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Al Noor Special Needs Centre

You can donate online or order Smiles n’ Stuff products handcrafted by Al Noor students. The centre publishes a wish list of extras needed, starting at Dh500.

Beit Al Khair Society

Beit Al Khair Society has the motto “From – and to – the UAE,” with donations going towards the neediest in the country. Its website has a list of physical donation sites, but people can also contribute money by SMS, bank transfer and through the hotline 800-22554.

Dar Al Ber Society

Dar Al Ber Society, which has charity projects in 39 countries, accept cash payments, money transfers or SMS donations. Its donation hotline is 800-79.

Dubai Cares

Dubai Cares provides several options for individuals and companies to donate, including online, through banks, at retail outlets, via phone and by purchasing Dubai Cares branded merchandise. It is currently running a campaign called Bookings 2030, which allows people to help change the future of six underprivileged children and young people.

Emirates Airline Foundation

Those who travel on Emirates have undoubtedly seen the little donation envelopes in the seat pockets. But the foundation also accepts donations online and in the form of Skywards Miles. Donated miles are used to sponsor travel for doctors, surgeons, engineers and other professionals volunteering on humanitarian missions around the world.

Emirates Red Crescent

On the Emirates Red Crescent website you can choose between 35 different purposes for your donation, such as providing food for fasters, supporting debtors and contributing to a refugee women fund. It also has a list of bank accounts for each donation type.

Gulf for Good

Gulf for Good raises funds for partner charity projects through challenges, like climbing Kilimanjaro and cycling through Thailand. This year’s projects are in partnership with Street Child Nepal, Larchfield Kids, the Foundation for African Empowerment and SOS Children's Villages. Since 2001, the organisation has raised more than $3.5 million (Dh12.8m) in support of over 50 children’s charities.

Noor Dubai Foundation

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the Noor Dubai Foundation a decade ago with the aim of eliminating all forms of preventable blindness globally. You can donate Dh50 to support mobile eye camps by texting the word “Noor” to 4565 (Etisalat) or 4849 (du).

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