Causes of Decreasing Water Balances in the Barada Awaj (Damascus) Drainage Basin until the Uprising in Syria

Abstract

Despite all of the many discrepancies and contradictions in the estimate of the water balance in the Barada Awaj basin, all the research and reports, both local and international, indicate that the basin suffers from water depletion. The agricultural sector is the largest consumer of water, and the area of land irrigated by the basin has risen significantly. Rapid population growth as a result of natural increase and massive immigration to the basin, piratical well-digging without permits, the failure to increase the area of land irrigated by modern methods and a decrease in rainfall and the drought that has affected Syria in general and the Barada Awaj basin in particular, have led to a water shortage in the basin during the first decade of this century.