From 2007 to 2011, the Middle Eastern country of Syria experienced a severe drought. Rainfall dropped by 50 percent. About 160 villages were abandoned completely, and over a million people were affected. Those who were unable to continue living in rural villages moved to the cities. At the same time, political unrest in the country was rising. The drought was one of several factors that led to the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011. As of 2022, the war was ongoing in parts of the country. The war caused human suffering, but it also damaged the environment in Syria. Government use of chemical weapons and other bombs damaged the air and soil. Huge amounts of forests were also destroyed. And that is just the damage from bombs that exploded. Experts estimate that it could take 50 years to remove unexploded bombs from Syrian land. A key issue in the Syrian civil war was access to oil. An oil refinery is a type of factory that processes the oil extracted from the ground. Rebel groups tried to take control of oil refineries for their own use or export the oil for income. To counter this, local people, government forces, and allies of the government, such as the United States, set up makeshift oil refineries all over the country. Small pumps or groups of pumps remove crude oil from the ground, and then workers heat the crude oil to make it semi-usable. Heating crude oil without protection is dangerous for the workers and adds to air pollution. These makeshift refineries do not protect against oil spills. When oil spills on land, it can seep across the ground and turn into a river of oil. If there is rain during a spill, the oil travels even farther. This type of nonprofessional drilling can also contaminate groundwater. The use of badly refined oil in homes and cars also exposes people to pollutants. The majority of Syria is now under government control. However, two main issues remain, making living in Syria difficult and preventing refugees from returning to their homes. Waste. The government-led bombing campaigns of a decade of war resulted in a lot of waste that the government has not yet been able to clean up. Drought. In 2021, the rainy season was two months late to Syria and ended two months early. In 2022, the region was experiencing another drought—its worst in 70 years. Drought causes water scarcity. This is a problem for clean drinking water and agriculture. When the water level in rivers gets too low, it falls below pumping stations that were built to irrigate crops. Without water, crops can’t grow. Water scarcity also affects electricity. Hydroelectric power is produced by dams on the Euphrates River in Syria and the region. When the river gets too low, it generates less power. This is inconvenient for everyone but also dangerous. For example, when there is no electricity, hospitals cannot care for patients properly. Drought even has political effects. Many rivers run through multiple countries. The Euphrates runs through Turkey before it reaches Syria, and there is a large dam on the Turkish section of the river. This dam now releases less than half of the water the Turkish government promised when the dam was built. This has increased tensions between the countries.
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