The people of Tal al-Samn in Raqqa demanding the rehabilitation of irrigation canals
The people of Tal al-Samn in Raqqa demanding the rehabilitation of irrigation canals
The residents of Tal al-Samn, in the north countryside of Raqqa, demand the Civil Council of Raqqa to complete a network of irrigation canals, that was rehabilitated but did not benefit farmers to irrigate their land.
The water station in Tal el-Samn village was irrigating thousands of hectares and provided drinking water to the people, which was damaged during the battles between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Islamic State (ISIS) at the end of 2016.
After cooperation between the Civil Council of Raqqa and the international organizations, it was rehabilitated, and started pumping water again, yet, the disqualification of the sub-canals that transported water to the farmlands remained intractable.
Fawaz Al Jabr, the owner of land located within the project which is irrigated by Tal al-Samn Pump, questioned the usefulness of rehabilitating the pump without being able to cultivate their lands, noting that the destruction of sub channels, three years ago, made the land useless.
In the north countryside of Raqqa, there is a network of irrigation canals that have provideي jobs for thousands of people in the region, but it became out of service upon the Syrian crisis.
Fawaz Al Jabr said that his family members had to travel to Lebanon to work in cultivating lands, as they did not benefit from theirs, giving that it needed irrigation water.
Issa Al-Alaj, one of al-Hisha village residents in the north of Raqqa countryside, said to North Press that the lack of water access to farmlands caused many families, including his family, to migrate to Turkey and Lebanon to work there.
On the reasons that impede the rehabilitation of these sub canals, Khalid al-Abdullah, an irrigation technician at the Tal al-Samn pumps project, said that the destruction and devastation of the irrigation canals manufacturing plant(prefabricated) near Raqqa is very huge, plus the difficulty in securing the equipment and machines they need to complete the rehabilitation project.
Around nine percent of the people in the north of Raqqa countryside work in lands, and as a result of the battles between the Syrian Democratic Forces and ISIS, in 2016 and 2017 they suffered from the damage of most irrigation water stations and the regulatory bridges were established on the canals.
It is worthy to mention, that 80% of the irrigation canals in the region were repaired. According to the Committee for Agriculture and Irrigation of the Raqqa Civil Council.
Al Raqqa-Hashim Ahmed-NPA