At last, snows cover Damascus surroundings
Syria, Local, 1/6/2000

Heavy rainfall which prevailed in most Syrian cities during the two past days, have greatly changed the mood of the Syrians. Each has his own explanations for the unexpected rain.

Some believed that it is the rain prayers held in all the country's mosques while others say it is the solidarity of the "heaven" with the festivities of the new year and Eid al-Fitr.

However, these rainfalls came following a very dry winter and have not yet ended the fears of the Syrians on the future of potable waters and agriculture.

The Syrians have a dark memory with drought which coincided with the years of economic sanctions imposed on the country during the 1980s and the "binding together" resulted then in that there was a day when the country had only wheat enough to meet people's demands of bread for 24 days.

Earlier droughts in Syria contributed to breaking the Arab republic project between Syria and Egypt, as there was complete drought four three successive years which were the three years of unity between Syria and Egypt, a drought which resulted in undermining plans made by the late President Jamal Abdul Nasser for agricultural reform and breaking the unity between the two countries in 1961.

An official memorandum has estimated Damascus' and its countryside's needs of water at 342 million cubic meters annually. It also estimated that the total discrepancy for the year 2000 will reach 577 million cubic meters, representing an annual discrepancy of 46%.

For the third running day, rains continued in most parts of the country and snows fell on the heights and reached an average of 10 cm thickness and 50 cm thickness in the southern region in Hadar and Beer Ajam.

Previous Stories:
  Syria studies bringing water from coastal areas to Damascus   (12/6/1999)
  At last it is raining in Damascus   (12/6/1999)
  President al-Assad calls for holding prayer for rain   (11/29/1999)

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