Thousands of civilians who fled the attacks of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria and took shelter in camps in northwestern Idlib province are experiencing water shortages due to the increase in temperatures, drought and a lack of infrastructure.
Mohammad Hallaj, director of the Syria Emergency Response Coordinator, who conducts data work in Idlib, said that there are water shortages in more than 590 camps.
Stressing that humanitarian aid organizations should make more efforts to solve the water problem, Hallaj said: "More than 800,000 civilians in the region suffer from water shortages in summer, along with many basic supplies."
Dr. Serhan Esved, who works at the Rahme Hospital in Idlib, said that loss of water in the human body causes problems such as dry mouth and not being able to produce sweat and tears.
Dr. Esved stated that water is indispensable for the human body. "Water regulates body temperature. It makes up 83% of the blood in the body. Loss of water leads to increased body temperature, rapid heartbeat, lowering of blood pressure, headache, blood loss, confusion in the mind, dry skin and different skin diseases," he said.
Halit Muhammed, who fled from the Assad regime forces, said that they have had issues with the water supply for five months and that they applied to many humanitarian aid organizations, but they did not get any results.
He noted that the camp residents drink unclean water that the farmers water their gardens with, explaining, "People are poor here. They don't have money to buy water. Tanker owners sell water at exorbitant prices."
Stating that they paid 20 liras for a barrel of water, Muhammed said, "We earn 20 liras a day. Should we buy something to eat with the money we earn? Or should we buy medicine?"
Calling on humanitarian aid organizations, he said, "We do not have water to drink and wash. If we are not clean, we get diseases and if people do not drink water, they get kidney disease."
Abdülkerim Arif, who lives in a tent in the village of Zerdene in the north of Idlib, also stated that he is worried about his children getting sick due to the water shortage.
"Lesions began to appear on the faces of our children. This is due to the lack of water. We expect charities and authorities to help the camp residents," Arif said.
The Idlib region, where the 2.8 million displaced persons live, is the last Syrian enclave to oppose the regime in Damascus.
Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Türkiye and Russia in March 2020. However, the Syrian regime has consistently violated the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.
Just recently on Tuesday, the White Helmets civil defense group said that regime forces and Russian artillery bombed civilians' homes in the village of Shnan and the outskirts of the village of Albarah south of Idlib.
It shared on Twitter that on the same day artillery shelling was fired from YPG-controlled and regime-controlled areas.
According to a recent report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published this month, frequent shelling continued in the past two months, killing 14 civilians, including two women and five children, also injuring 17 civilians, including 10 children.
It also said that 8,590 people and 7,842 people were newly internally displaced in June and July respectively, according to the Humanitarian Needs Assessment Programme (HNAP).
The report also touched upon the water problems of the region, saying: "Over a decade of war has damaged infrastructure and disrupted water networks in north-west Syria. The water situation is exacerbated by the impacts of climate change and unpredictable weather events."
The U.N. underlined that in northwest Syria, out of 667 water systems, 43% of them are not functional.