The state of land and water resources in Syria

Summary

Country overview

The total extent of the Syrian Arab Republic is 18.5 million ha, one-third of which is arable land or forests and two-thirds, desert and rocky land. Syria is divided into four main geographic regions:

• the narrow coastal region along the Mediterranean, between the mountains and the sea;
• the mountains and hills, including the coastal range;
• the interior region, east of the coastal range, including the plains of Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, Al Hassakeh and Daraa;
• the Badia, the desert plains in the southeastern part of the country.

The population is about 16 million (1999), half of which is rural.

The climate is Mediterranean, with rainy winters and hot dry summers and two short transitional seasons. Annual rainfall ranges from more than 600 mm in the west to less than 200mm in the arid central and southeastern half of the country. Natural vegetation ranges from forests in the west through shrub pseudosteppe to pseudosteppe and sub-desert.

Water resources

The Euphates river and groundwater are the main sources of irrigation water in Syria. There are about 1.2 million ha of irrigated land (1997), six percent of the total land area and 21 percent of total cultivable land. Sixty percent of the irrigated land is served by groundwater, although total renewable groundwater resources represent less than seven percent of the total available water resources.

Land degradation

Major land degradation processes in Syria are salinization in irrigated areas, water erosion in mountain regions and wind erosion in the steppe area.

While irrigation became extensive in the area as early as 4 000 - 3 000 B.C., salinization of irrigated land only started in the nineteen-forties, when large-scale irrigation became possible by using diesel pumps. It became serious from the nineteen-fifties, when cotton was introduced as a summer cash crop, with the rise in groundwater level because of the absence of any drainage system and misuse of irrigation water.

Water erosion mainly occurs in the mountains in the western, subhumid part of the country. Wind erosion is affecting about a quarter of the steppe area, and has become significantly more prevalent in recent decades with the large increase in rainfed agriculture in the steppe, from some 36 000 ha in 1982 to more than 550 000 ha in 1990.

The full Syria country report is available at the Gateway Web site:

http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGL/sw1wpnr/sw1wpnr.htm