The devastating Türkiye-Syria earthquakes of February 2023 exacerbated the already immense suffering in northwest Syria, where communities have endured over 13 years of relentless armed conflict and prolonged displacement. With vital funding from the European Union (EU), Goal has been working to provide disaster-affected families with access to clean piped water, offering hope amidst extreme fragility.
“Are we not human?” questions Hussein, a 48-year-old father of nine who has been living in Al-Wadah displacement camp in northern Aleppo, Syria, since the earthquakes destroyed his family’s home in Jandires town in February 2023.
Describing the challenges faced by displaced families like his, Hussein shares, “There is no medicine, schools, roads and, most importantly, no water or hygiene. Perhaps we are not considered human after all.”
Every day, Goal teams working on the ground in northwest Syria meet hundreds of families experiencing the struggles Hussein expressed. The devastation brought on by the February 2023 earthquakes put a new strain on communities that were already reeling from 13 years of relentless armed conflict, economic downturn, and the Covid-19 pandemic, damaging homes and critical infrastructure and pushing hundreds of thousands more Syrians to the brink.
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The right to water under fragility
Regular access to clean water is essential for survival in fragile contexts. However, in northwest Syria, more than half of the region’s 5.1 million population relies on potentially unsafe water sources. According to the United Nations, among the 2 million displaced people in northwest Syria who are living in camps and informal settlements, only 27 per cent of households are connected to the water network, which has suffered immense damage from years of conflict and the February 2023 earthquakes.
Hussein’s wife, Amina, understands the importance of avoiding water that may be unsafe to use but feels powerless and without any other options. Since relocating to the displacement camp, her family has depended on water supplied in trucks by private vendors.
“The water we get isn’t sterilised, and my children are constantly sick with diarrhoea and vomiting,” she explains.
Yet, at times, even trucked water can be challenging to reach as flooding can block the roads in the camp, which is settled on agricultural land. It often falls on the children to fetch water from the trucks.
“In rainy weather,” explains Amina and Hussein’s 12-year-old son Mudar, “it’s especially tough as the camp’s roads turn into mud. We have to trek over 500 meters in the mud to reach the water truck and fill the cans. Unfortunately, the water we bring back is often mixed with dirt, making it unsuitable for drinking.”
Hussein and Amina have to resort to extreme measures when water trucks fail to visit their camp. “Once,” shares Amina, “I had to gather water from a pool of rainwater in the camp for cleaning.” “Sometimes,” adds Hussein, “we’re forced to use the rainwater collected from the tent’s roof despite knowing it’s polluted.”
Delivering water under conflict and disasters
Goal has been supporting water systems across northwest Syria since 2014. This support has enabled the continued operation of piped water networks under conflict conditions by ensuring water pumping stations are powered, conducting repairs and maintenance, and facilitating water safety through chlorination and testing. Goal also provides capacity building and technical assistance to local water network administrators.
With funding from the EU and other donors, Goal is currently helping supply clean tap water for approximately 800,000 individuals across northwest Syria.
In recent years, Goal has broadened its humanitarian Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) delivery model to reach additional displaced communities living in camps and self-settled tented sites.
Since the February 2023 earthquakes, Goal has intensified these efforts, providing or restoring access to clean water for over 130,000 individuals affected by the earthquakes by rehabilitating and extending water networks, constructing water towers, and installing solar power systems, thanks to additional support from the EU.
Goal’s EU-funded WASH activities in Al-Wadah and nearby tented settlements in Northern Aleppo have aimed to ensure that piped potable water can be supplied to over 5,000 displaced people, many of whom lost their homes in the earthquakes. This work has included installing new pipelines connecting the camp to a water pumping station and constructing a new water tower to support a stable water system.
Hussein expressed relief when he witnessed the installation of the new water pipelines in Al-Wadah: “When Goal tested the system, and we saw that the water was flowing from the tap, the whole camp felt like the site of a feast.”
Upon completion of the tower’s construction, families in the settlement will have regular access to piped potable water from a reliable source, crucial for warding off water-borne diseases.
Amidst a world fraught with crises, aid organisations confront increasingly complex humanitarian challenges affecting a growing number of people. There’s a critical need for medium to long-term humanitarian programmes that go beyond short-term emergency responses. These programmes must address the evolving nature of displacement, providing essential services to families over extended periods.
In fragile regions like northwest Syria, where public capacity to address risks is limited, humanitarian efforts play a vital role in strengthening local service delivery. By ensuring the continuation of these services through conflict and disasters, aid organisations can offer hope for a better future for those affected.
Goal teams have been working on the ground in Syria for over ten years, supporting vulnerable communities since the conflict began in 2012. Visit here to learn more.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however those of Goal only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EU Humanitarian Aid. Neither the European Union nor EU Humanitarian Aid can be held responsible for them.
About EU Humanitarian Aid: The European Union and its Member States are among the world’s leading donors of humanitarian aid. Through the Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of the European Commission, the European Union helps millions of victims of conflict and disasters every year.
Learn more at civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu