Enab Baladi – Hassan Ibrahim

With a sigh mixed with feelings of helplessness and despair, farmer Farid Kamal laments the condition of his agricultural land, which spans 150 dunams in the village of al-Areesha, east of Ras al-Ain in al-Hasakah province. The drought of the Khabour River has turned it from irrigated to rain-fed, resulting in a gradual decline in its yield, which has fallen to three times less than what it used to be several years ago.

The farmer relies on rainwater to irrigate his land, which is insufficient, and he lacks the financial means to dig a well, making agriculture a fruitless endeavor. He recalls when the yield per dunam was 450 kilograms of wheat in 2005, dwindling to no more than 100 kilograms currently.

Kamal spoke to Enab Baladi about the presence of inactive wells on the river’s banks that could be operated and activated to revive the lands waiting for a drop of rain in a region characterized by a dry, desert climate that needs water sources beyond rain.

Kamal’s land is just one of hundreds of thousands in al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor, which have gradually suffered damage due to the drought affecting vast sections of the Khabour River. Meanwhile, the water level has dropped, and pollution has spread in other areas, leading to a disaster that had long been looming, obliterating what remained of one of the most famous rivers in Syria, especially in the Jazira region, and an important tributary of the Euphrates, solidifying a water crisis with no immediate solutions.

The agricultural lands have shifted from irrigated to rain-fed due to the river’s drought and pollution, causing the soil to lose the Khabour water, which was its water source and lifeline. Parts of the river still struggle to survive after the decline in water levels, caused by natural, human, and political factors, including insufficient rainfall, dam construction by Turkey and factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA), and the excessive use of water.

Gradually, the lands on both banks of the Khabour have become barren with minimal or no production, left to fate without any solutions. The types of agricultural practices have changed over the past 50 years due to the dams and irrigation projects that have been built, with predictions made three years ago indicating that severe drought was on the way after the lands were once fertile and produced strategic crops that were part of Syria’s food basket.

In this report, Enab Baladi tracks the course of the Khabour River in Syria, discusses and presents the reasons that led to its drought and pollution, and explores the consequences for agriculture, livestock, and the population, speaking with farmers and engineers, and proposing solutions from experts and specialists.

The Khabour River

The Khabour River is considered one of the most prominent rivers in the Syrian Jazira region and an important tributary of the Euphrates. It originates from southeastern Turkey, primarily fed by several springs in the Ras al-Ain area, including Ain Kabreat, Ain al-Hisan, Ain al-Zarqa (northern and southern), Ain al-Malha, and Ain al-Fawara.

It flows through al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor governorates within Syrian territory, extending approximately 320 kilometers and serving as a vital artery for agriculture in the region, ultimately discharging into the Euphrates at al-Basira in Deir Ezzor.

Farmers relied on it to irrigate their crops, making it a primary source of life and local economy. It also played a crucial role in the prosperity of agricultural communities and the establishment of ancient civilizations along its banks.

150,000 dunams without water in Ras al-Ain

In the Ras al-Ain area, northwest of al-Hasakah, bordering Turkey and under the control of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG), the Khabour River has completely dried up for about 11 years, significantly impacting agriculture and burdening the local population, paralyzing production in their lands that rely on the river for irrigation, leaving them with few options, none of them good. They can either abandon farming, which no longer brings forth a return, or irrigate their crops with contaminated sewage water, or drill expensive wells.

According to farmers, engineers, and officials interviewed by Enab Baladi, the drought is attributed to the unregulated depletion of water resources through random well drilling on both sides of the borders, whether in Turkey or within Syrian territory, in addition to the cessation of water flow from Turkey, resulting in the complete stoppage of the Khabour River’s flow.

The area of farmland in Ras al-Ain that once depended on the Khabour River’s water reached 150,000 dunams, which has shifted from an irrigation system to rain-fed agriculture and has become completely reliant on rainfall, resulting in a drastic decline in yield, as per a local council statistic provided to Enab Baladi.

Since 2012, farmer Ali al-Hassoun has stopped cultivating 70 dunams of agricultural land in the village of Ain al-Hisan, near the town of Tal Halaf in Ras al-Ain, due to the drying up of the Khabour River, on which he relied for irrigating his crops.

He mentioned to Enab Baladi that the wells on the banks of the river, dug by the water authority under the Syrian regime government’s control since 2012, have ceased to function and have not been reactivated by the Autonomous Administration (which controlled the area from 2013 to 2019) or by the Interim Government, which currently controls it.

The only solution for irrigating his land and returning to farming is drilling a well, but he cannot afford the drilling costs, as drilling and installing a solar-powered system on an agricultural land area of 100 dunams would cost about $18,000 (approximately 270 million Syrian pounds), an amount most residents cannot bear.

He believes that leaving the land barren without planting is better than cultivating it since the yield won’t cover costs, while other farmers have gradually abandoned their lands.

Drought waves, Theft of equipment and pumps

Farmers in Ras al-Ain lack the means to drill their own wells to irrigate their agricultural lands due to the water level dropping by more than 150 meters in areas adjacent to the Khabour River. Most of them relied on operating the wells that were dug by the water authority under the Syrian regime government in 2012, which ceased functioning after the area fell out of regime control and transitioned to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), then to the Syrian opposition.

A source in the water resources department of the local council in Ras al-Ain told Enab Baladi that the Khabour River witnessed severe drought waves in 1930 due to climate changes affecting Turkey and Syria in general.

The source added that the river regained its natural flow in 1950, at a rate of 48 cubic meters per second, but this rate significantly dropped to 10 cubic meters per second by 1990, eventually leading to complete drought at the beginning of the new millennium.

The source mentioned that the water authority dug 87 wells along the riverbed during the drought, which helped supply it with water and provide for agricultural areas up to 150,000 dunams, besides supporting the region’s pastures.

These wells stopped functioning in 2012 due to power outages and theft of equipment and pumps, exacerbating the region’s water crisis, and transforming 150,000 dunams into rain-fed lands, according to the source.

He further noted that there are no alternatives for farmers until the existing wells on both sides of the river are activated due to significant drops in groundwater levels compared to the past.

350 dunams irrigated with sewage water

Farmers in Ras al-Ain are forced to irrigate their lands near the Turkish border with contaminated water due to mixing with sewage, with these lands located in the villages of Kashto, Tal Halaf, and Ain al-Zarqa, irrigated with water from the Khabour River flowing from Ceylanpınar in Turkey.

Along both sides of the river course, which originates in Turkey and enters Syrian territory, pumps are distributed that draw water from the stream and from the water ponds formed, irrigating the lands despite clear signs of pollution and mixing with sewage.

Sewage water is not new to the area; it used to come before 2011, when the Syrian regime government was in control; however, farmers had relied on artesian wells operated by the water authority at that time, which prevented the water in the Khabour from stagnating.

The spokesperson for the local council of Ras al-Ain, Ziad Malaki, told Enab Baladi that the areas cultivated with sewage water on both banks of the Khabour River have decreased from 400 dunams to 350 dunams.

He clarified that the council is continuously working to disinfect the water and has issued decisions restricting vegetable cultivation using sewage water, limiting it to forage crops.

He added that sewage water was siphoned through sewerage channels, and municipal teams have carried out cleaning and spraying operations for the swamps formed as a result of this water.

Malaki indicated that the council is in constant communication with the Turkish side to find a decisive solution to this problem, noting that the sewage issue in Tal Halaf will be resolved by directing the water to sewage channels instead of allowing it to flow into the river.

According to exclusive figures obtained by Enab Baladi, the agricultural area in Ras al-Ain totals 1.27 million dunams, with only 200,000 dunams currently cultivated, while the area of rain-fed agricultural land exceeds 420,000 dunams, which has become desertified due to the drop in water levels, and is now considered to have low production and almost none at all.

Weapon of war

The Syrian regime’s control over the city of Ras al-Ain and its neighboring Tal Abyad ended in 2012, giving way to the control of the former Free Syrian Army (FSA). Then, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the military wing of the AANES, took control from 2013 until 2019 (initially referred to as the Kurdish forces). Following this, the Syrian National Army took over both areas, supported by Turkish forces during Operation Peace Spring.

Water was a weapon of war in Syria, utilized by various parties across different regions of control, and the Khabour River was not spared from politicization. The Dutch organization “PAX” documented the use of the National Army factions, leveraging the waters of the Khabour River to exert pressure on the areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration.

In its 2021 report, it stated that the National Army constructed three dams on the Khabour River. From late May until early October 2021, the flow of water in the river ceased, affecting 60 communities that relied on its waters along its banks, as well as more than 20 other communities located nearby (within a distance of 4 kilometers).

The construction of the three dams exacerbated the severe drought the region was experiencing, according to the organization, which concluded that the blockade on the water flow from the Khabour River during a period considered to be the driest in Syria’s history would have dire consequences for the inhabitants along the river’s course, deeming it an extreme measure that deprived civilians of their livelihoods and a violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

Pollution and drought: Agriculture declines in al-Hasakah

After Ras al-Ain, the river flows toward the town of Tal Tamr, where the village of Tal Tawil, located north of Tal Tamr, is the first point where the river enters, and it is under the control of the Autonomous Administration (opposite it is the village of al-Manajir from the opposition factions’ side). Beyond that, it flows to the city of al-Hasakah and then to al-Basira in Deir Ezzor, where it merges with the Euphrates River.

The river’s condition in the areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration is no different from that in the areas under the control of the Interim Government, as sections of it have completely dried up, while others have become polluted and have been filled with waste, rendering them unusable. This situation has turned the river into a source of diseases, epidemics, and insects, depriving residents of any benefit, whether in agriculture or drinking water.

The Khabour River in al-Hasakah has several tributaries, including the Jaghjagh River, which meets it in the city of al-Hasakah, where the river passes through its center, as well as the Zirkan River, which joins it at the southern outskirts of Tal Tamr, and the Jirjib River, which converges with the Khabour near the village of al-Safih.

The tributaries of the Khabour are small rivers that only have water flow during the winter season and often remain dry for most months of the year. They also serve as outlets for even smaller tributaries, with the Jaghjagh River having the Jirahi River flowing into it before meeting the Khabour.

Along the bed of the Khabour River, hundreds of villages that used to irrigate their crops with its waters are distributed. In the riverbed area from Tal Tamr to al-Hasakah, there are about 33 villages that relied on the river for their agriculture but have lost it due to its drying and pollution.

No cotton or vegetables, only barley

Farmer Tarek al-Jweir (55 years old) from the al-Tweinah village northwest of al-Hasakah recalls how the Khabour River was a primary source for irrigating the fertile agricultural lands surrounding it. However, the catastrophic decline in water levels over the past few years has turned them into lands with almost no production.

The farmer told Enab Baladi that many factors contributed to the drought, including the interruption of water flow from Turkey to Syria, years of drought, and pollution exacerbating the situation. He pointed out that with the scarce rainfall, small puddles of dirty water formed, leading to the spread of disease-carrying insects.

These conditions have made it difficult to maintain agriculture, especially cotton farming, which the region was famous for, as it was severely affected by water shortages and rising production costs.

Al-Jweir owns 10 hectares (one hectare equals 10 dunams), of which he used to cultivate 9 with cotton and one with vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplants, onions, and lettuce, which he could easily irrigate directly from river water using a regular pump (centrifugal). With the deteriorating situation, he has since shifted to growing all of it in barley, relying on rainfall.

Al-Jweir’s situation reflects that of hundreds of farmers tracked by Enab Baladi, many of whom have lost their source of income or reduced their agricultural activities in the Khabour River basin due to the river’s drought.

Statistics indicate a decline in cotton cultivation due to several factors, whether from reduced buying prices or the absence of marketing outlets. However, the drying up of the Khabour has led farmers to refrain from planting “white gold,” especially since it requires more irrigation than other crops.

Most of the cotton fields in al-Hasakah are under the control of the Autonomous Administration. According to Enab Baladi‘s monitoring, in 2022, the area cultivated with cotton exceeded 50,000 hectares in northeastern Syria (Al-Hasakah, Raqqa, and Deir Ezzor). Meanwhile, the area cultivated with cotton decreased to 42,500 hectares in 2024 in the three regions, meaning northeastern Syria lost 7,500 hectares of cotton over the past two years.

On the other hand, the Syrian regime controls certain areas of al-Hasakah province and has plans for the crop’s cultivation each season. However, the planned areas for cultivation do not match their plans, consistently falling short and declining over the past years.

“Completely vanished”

Salah al-Azou (43 years old), an agricultural engineer from al-Hasakah, told Enab Baladi that the area of land formerly irrigated by the Khabour River was estimated at 180,000 hectares, and it has now shrunk by about 90%, having “completely vanished” in some regions.

The engineer described the state of agriculture in the Khabour basin as “terrible and horrifying.” The river’s drought has not only impacted the cultivation of basic crops such as cotton and wheat but has also caused the disappearance of many other crops like fruit trees and summer and winter vegetables.

The engineer explained that the drought led to the problem of “irrigating with sewage water,” as sewage flows from neighborhoods such as Ghweran in al-Hasakah into the river, reaching as far as al-Shaddadi.

He mentioned that most of the sewage water comes from the city of al-Hasakah. While this issue has existed for a long time, its impact has increased with the river’s drought, and both banks of the river have turned into garbage dumps as it flows through neighborhoods in the city, where insects, rodents, and stray dogs gather.

According to the engineer, the previous strength of the river’s flow prevented sewage water from significantly affecting it.

In the al-Shaddadi area, where many residents also relied on the Khabour River, some have turned to alternative solutions by digging wells and operating them using solar power. The irrigated area there reached 98,933 dunams, while the area of rainfed land was 27,324 dunams.

Ponds for collecting water in Deir Ezzor

The Khabour River is not considered in agricultural planning in Deir Ezzor, where its last part flows before joining the Euphrates River in the al-Basira area. Residents have not relied on it for irrigation for more than 25 years, according to Ahmed al-Hormoz (65), from the village of Hriiza in the northern Deir Ezzor countryside.

Instead, residents depend on an irrigation canal located in the village of al-Sabha, which runs to the town of al-Sour, supplying water to more than 20 villages and towns in the Khabour area in the northern Deir Ezzor countryside.

Farmers draw water from this canal to their lands via pipes and form ponds for irrigation, which is the only way to secure some water.

Ismail al-Tah, the head of the northern agricultural department in the Civil Council of Deir Ezzor, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration, told Enab Baladi that the Khabour River relies mainly on the irrigation canal situated in the town of al-Sabha in eastern Deir Ezzor.

He noted that the canal has several branches, approximately every 7 kilometers there is a branch supplying the Khabour River to nourish the adjacent area, but it is insufficient for complete nourishment.

Al-Tah added that most farmers have dug water collection ponds, which are insufficient to irrigate three to four dunams, impacting the general decline of agriculture.

Before the drought of the Khabour, most farmers in the region depended on its water, and agriculture was thriving, both winter and summer, with crops such as cotton, sesame, and wheat. Meanwhile, the dams played a crucial role in retaining water and nourishing the area. However, water collection ponds remain their only solution.

According to farmer Falah al-Ayesh in the northern Deir Ezzor countryside, only a few farmers can dig large water ponds with heavy machinery, which can irrigate 5 to 6 dunams.

The farmer told Enab Baladi that most residents plant their lands only in winter, depending on rainfall.

The head of the northern agricultural department, Ismail al-Tah, stated that the area under summer cultivation near the Khabour is low, approximately 10 to 15% in the stretch from the village of al-Sour to the town of al-Basira.

Economic, environmental, and social impacts

Drought affects all parts of the environment and communities, and the various effects of drought are often classified as economic, environmental, and social. The economic impacts refer to those that cost people (or companies) money.

The most prominent economic fallout from drought is that farmers lose money if drought destroys their crops, leading them to spend more on irrigation or to dig new wells. Livestock farmers may also have to spend more on feed and water for their animals, and people may have to pay more for food.

As for the environmental impacts of drought, they include reduced water levels in reservoirs, lakes, and ponds, loss of wetlands, more forest fires, soil erosion due to winds, poor soil quality, and a lack of food and drinking water for wildlife, as well as wildlife migration.

Regarding the social impacts of drought, these are the ways in which drought affects people’s health and safety. This includes public safety, health, and conflicts among people when there is not enough water for everyone, as well as changes in lifestyle.

Examples of social impacts include loss of human life, anxiety or depression due to the economic losses caused by drought, the emergence of health problems linked to reduced water flows and poor water quality, and people may have to move from farms to cities.

What are the solutions?

The PAX organization mentioned in its report on the establishment of dams on the Khabour River in Ras al-Ain several recommendations calling on responsible parties, including the Syrian National Army and the Turkish government to:

• Immediately remove all dams on the Khabour River and stop the blockade of flowing water toward the outlet.
• Respect international legal obligations regarding the protection of civilian infrastructure, as protected by the Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions.
• Commit to peaceful dialogue regarding solutions related to the degradation of natural resources due to climate change.

The organization also urged the international community to proactively cooperate with Turkey to ensure civilians’ access to river water and to develop a regional strategy regarding transboundary water challenges linked to developments related to climate change affecting surface and groundwater, as well as soil and plant growth.

It called on the Human Rights Council and the investigative committee to include river blockage operations in monitoring the situation, systematically including violations of access to water in their reports and raising this issue with the concerned authorities.

The organization urged the UN Security Council to ensure it is regularly informed about the impacts of water insecurity faced by civilians in Syria and other conflict-affected areas during its monthly briefings on the humanitarian situation, and to ensure the participation of civil society organizations in the briefings and reporting mechanisms.