Daraa – Halim Muhammad

The water pumping station in the city of Nawa in northern Daraa countryside was subjected to theft by unknown perpetrators, targeting the cables supplying the drinking water pumps, which caused them to go out of service.

The station is connected to the al-Ash’ari pumping center in western Daraa and is responsible for supplying Nawa city with drinking water, as well as feeding the villages of Sukariyya, Adwan, and Tasil, amounting to approximately 200,000 residents in these areas.

The station serves as a backup after the local community in Nawa activated the al-Ash’ari reservoir project and connected it to another reservoir at the foot of Tal al-Jomou.

Residents of Nawa city have complained about the shortage of drinking water due to numerous violations, whether in the internal network or the use of incoming water to the city by farmers in the area between al-Ash’ari and Nawa city, over a distance estimated at more than 15 kilometers.

Repeated thefts

Atta Allah al-Sawalha, an employee at the station, told Enab Baladi that the thieves cut all the cables connecting the pumps to the control panels and stole some breakers from these panels.

He added that the station went out of service in December 2024 and needs new cables to operate again.

He called on the Damascus caretaker government to activate security at the station, as it has been subjected to more than three thefts since the World Food Programme (WFP) renovated it in 2019, after which the former Syrian regime placed a checkpoint at its entrance for protection during the past years.

Local efforts

In June 2024, the residents of Nawa launched a fundraising campaign to solve the drinking water issue in the city, gathering around 2.675 billion Syrian pounds (about 206,000 USD), according to Jamal Khattab, a member of the local committee in Nawa.

Khattab added to Enab Baladi that the local committee built a reservoir at the foot of the Yarmouk Valley and supplied it with a permanently operating electric line, then connected it to the Tal al-Jomou reservoir at the top of the hill, which operates autonomously based on gravitational push.

He mentioned that the pumping station has become an alternative source in case of a malfunction in the main reservoir at al-Ash’ari.

Tal al-Jomou is located south of Nawa city, about four kilometers away.

The local committee in Nawa pays three million Syrian pounds (230 USD) in monthly security fees to protect the main reservoir at al-Ash’ari, but currently lacks the capacity to pay a similar amount for guarding the pumping station near Tal al-Jomou, according to the local committee in the city.

Expensive alternatives

Walid Ammarin, a teacher in Nawa, spends most of his monthly salary on drinking water, which he has been buying from mobile tankers for over three months.

Ammarin told Enab Baladi that after the new project was implemented, which went into effect three months ago, water no longer reaches his home, prompting him to purchase water from mobile tankers.

Nawa city is one of the largest residential communities in Daraa governorate, with a population of around 120,000.

Ammarin needs about half a cubic meter of water daily, with the cost of a cubic meter reaching 25,000 Syrian pounds (two dollars).

Nizar (53 years old) stated that water only reaches him once every three months; therefore, he has relied on well water, which is mostly hard and unchlorinated.

Water vendors control prices, with some selling a tanker (25 barrels) for 120,000 Syrian pounds, and others for 150,000.

The new reservoir line is shared between Nawa city and the villages of Tasil, Adwan, and Sukariyya, with one day designated for the city of Nawa and another day for the remaining areas. However, the population of the city of Nawa is twice that of those areas, whose notable figures refused to allocate two days for the city of Nawa in exchange for one day for their regions, according to Khattab.

Violations on the supply line

Several residents whom Enab Baladi interviewed attributed the shortage of water quantities to the violations of farmers on the supply line between the al-Ash’ari reservoir and the Tal al-Jomou reservoir.

Jamal Khattab stated that several violations occurred on the feeding line, being used for irrigation for agricultural projects.

He added that despite the intervention of local leaders and armed factions in the city, they have been unable to control these violations, which lead to a decrease in the amounts of incoming water.

Walid Ammarin mentioned that there was a proposal to dig wells around Tal al-Jomou and connect them directly to the reservoir to avoid the risk of violations on the main line, but the committee rejected that and opted to build the al-Ash’ari reservoir.