DAMASCUS: The worst drought in decades is gripping much of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, drying out rivers and lakes, shriveling crops and leading to dayslong tap water cutoffs in major cities.
The situation is particularly dire in Syria, where experts say rainfall has been declining for decades and where the fledgling government is trying to stitch the country back together following a 14-year civil war that left millions impoverished and reliant on foreign aid.
Small-farmer Mansour Mahmoud Al-Khatib said that during the war, he couldn’t reach his fields in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab some days because militants from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia allied with then-President Bashar Assad would block the roads. That problem vanished when Hezbollah withdrew after Assad fell in a December rebel offensive, but the drought has devastated his farm, drying up the wells that irrigate it.
“The land is missing the water,” Al-Khatib told The Associated Press recently as he watched workers feed the wheat he did manage to harvest into a threshing machine. “This season is weak — you could call it half a season. Some years are better and some years are worse, but this year is harsh.”
