Drought News

The United Nations Industrial Organisation has launched a new project for the first time since 2011.

Although the government increased its tobacco procurement prices, local tobacco farmers have complained that the prices remains below production costs.

Around 39 percent of the funding requirements for the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan for Syria were met last year, according to the UNHCR and UNDP.

Only half of the funding requirements for Syria’s Humanitarian Response Plan were reached in 2022, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Due to conflict-induced deforestation activities, perennial crop losses have reached up to USD 950 million, while some areas have reportedly lost up to 90 percent of their tree-covered areas, new report says.

Since the earthquake devastated southern Turkey and northern Syria on February 06, government-held areas have witnessed a 30-percent increase in the price of food and other essential commodities, further burdening ordinary Syrians reeling from the natural disaster, deteriorating living conditions, and an acute economic crisis. Meanwhile, the Syrian government has failed to respond adequately, sparking widespread criticism.

The Syrian government has seized the February 06 earthquake as an opportunity to call on Western governments to lift sanctions on Syria, claiming that they have severely impeded emergency response and humanitarian relief efforts to assist affected communities.

Syria’s wheat import bill stood at USD 552 million last year, according to a government official. A significant share of the supplies, which are overwhelmingly from Russia, appears to be stolen Ukrainian wheat.

As the cholera endemic continues unabated, the Ministry of Health recently received two million cholera vaccine doses – the first to reach the country since the outbreak was declared in September.

At the COP27 conference, the Syrian government predominantly blamed western sanctions, the opposition, and Israel for the challenges it faces in fighting climate change without taking responsibility for its role as a contributor to environmental harm. 

A UN expert recently published a controversial report on the impact of sanctions in Syria and called on sanctioning countries to lift unilateral sanctions against Syria.

The government is planning to significantly decrease allocations for flour and wheat subsidies next year, according to Syria's 2023 draft budget.

Wheat and barley production has declined significantly across all of Syria for the second year in a row due to climate change, low water levels in the Euphrates River, and production input shortages, according to official data. This season's wheat production is 75 percent lower than pre-crisis volumes.

Humanitarian funding requirements for the UN-run programmes for Syria are only a fraction fulfilled, despite the worsening humanitarian situation in the country, according to a senior UN official.

As cholera cases rise and water supplies dwindle, the Syrian government recently began operating a new water desalination plant in the Hassakeh governorate in an effort to provide potable water to residents. The plants are only meant to be used in cases of emergency, i.e. in a situation of a dramatic shortage in water supplies, likely to preserve underground water reserves. So far, the government has only activated fifteen out of the twenty plants.

Because of its economic and environmental impact, fishing by dynamite and electric shock is increasingly banned in Syria.

Low water levels are straining Syria’s agricultural sector and forcing Syrians to face rising prices and water-borne diseases as the country endures a severe and long-term drought, according to various reports and statements.

The Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria announced that it will purchase wheat from local farmers at a price 91 percent higher than last year and 5 percent higher than that of the Syrian government.

In an effort to ease the fallout of sanctions in non-government territories and stabilise areas liberated from the Islamic State, the U.S. administration has issued a general licence authorising economic activities, including foreign investments, in non-regime held areas of Northwest and Northeast Syria.

Amid an acute economic crisis, the prices of commodities – including cereals, key food items, oil products, and COVID-19-related items – have soared last year compared with 2020, according to the World Food Programme’s Market Price Watch Bulletin for Syria. Despite the fact that the government has increased public sector salaries, the purchasing power of Syrians is nonetheless unable to keep pace with the rising cost of living.