Syria faces ‘catastrophe’ from historic drought and free-market policies
By Phil Sands, Foreign Correspondent psands@thenational.ae Last Updated: February 10. 2010 12:20AM UAE / February 9. 2010 8:20PM GMT DAMASCUS // Free market economic reforms have helped create a “catastrophe” in eastern regions of Syria, greatly exacerbating the effects of a devastating drought, according to leading critics of government policy. Speaking at a weekly meeting of the Syrian economics society, a group of high-profile academics said a decision to end fuel and seed subsidies just as the drought was at its peak had destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers. In addition, the academics said subsequent efforts by the authorities to mitigate the impacts of severe water shortages had come too late, been insufficient and been hampered by corruption. According to the United Nations, 1.3 million people in the eastern region of Syria have been directly affected by the drought. The World Food Programme (WFP) is currently implementing a second emergency operation in the area, handing out aid packages to families who have been surviving on little more than tea and bread for months. Malnutrition is rife in the region and rising, UN officials say, one describing the crisis as “very, very serious and persistent”. … Hundreds of thousands of farmers and their families have already fled their land in Hasika, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor provinces, joining the pool of unemployed in already overcrowded cities such as Damascus and Aleppo. Many displaced families live in squalid camps. … Mr al Shayif said years of neglect of the eastern region had further undermined its ability to withstand the environmental shock, the worst drought it has suffered in more than four decades. … According to figures presented at the Syrian economics society meeting, 70 per cent of livestock in the Jazeera region had been wiped out as a result of the crisis, with farmers unable to grow animal fodder. Wheat output fell to 1.3 million tonnes in 2008, down from 2.4 million tonnes the year before. Falling production of wheat and other crops had hit the wider economy, experts at the meeting agreed, playing a role in a slowed national growth rate. …
