Syria Faces an Imminent Food and Water Crisis

Jun 24, 2014 | Chatham House
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Humanitarian aid to Syria must target water authorities’ maintenance and disinfection needs, as both the regime and opposition forces are failing to respond to the country’s escalating food and water crisis.

Syria’s essential services are on the brink of collapse under the burden of continuous assault on critical water infrastructure. The stranglehold of extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), neglect by the regime, and an eighth summer of drought may combine to create a water and food crisis which would escalate fatalities and migration rates in the country’s ongoing three-year conflict.

The capability of state agencies to respond to water, food and shelter crises is diminishing. The warning signs are clear for what could result in a far worse refugee crisis than the conflict has produced to date. The UN, neighbouring countries and the wider international community have a responsibility to collaborate in the next few months, in order to limit the extent of human suffering.