Drought has been hitting the North-Eastern parts of Syria in the harshest of ways, causing thousands of people to flee their once green fields into larger cities in Syria (mainly Damascus) looking for an alternative source of living. Speaking to the Financial Times, Nabi Rashid Mohammad, Syria's deputy minister of agriculture says that Syria wants "more parties to be involved in this problem because we, the Syrian government and the people are doing all we can but the problem is bigger than our abilities to deal with it."
Although Syria is seeking international aid, this has so far not been sufficient. The UN has not yet been able to come up with the required amount of funds to face this problem:
"The UN is seeking some $53m (€36m, £33m) in emergency funds but has not received any money yet from donors...
Drought is a slowly ongoing disaster and because of the political situation donors do not give money easily for humanitarian action in Syria," says Mostafa Shbib to the FT. According to a report on Aljazeera the UN has only managed to secure 19% of the total funds necessary.
The effects of the drought can be felt on many levels. Nabil Sukar a Syrian Economist has said that the effects of the drought on the economy can already be felt estimating that the drought will "shave about 1 per cent off gross domestic product growth this year." Syria's GDP growth this year is expected to be around 1%.
The BBC has also reported on the effects of the drought on the families that live in that region stating that nearly 300,000 families have already left the area. Although there has been 'limited assistance by the Un and Red Cross along with food aid distribution and the introduction of a system of tax breaks and new loans for farmers by the Syrian government; non of it is enough.'
