On December 26, an unusually heavy rainfall caused severe flash flooding in northern Syria along the Turkish Border. Hundreds of tents were washed away in Atme, karama, Dana, Sarmada, Al Bab, Atareb and Qah in the northern Syria. The area is largely valleys with poor drainage. The tents are canvas and fixed to the bare ground with dirt roads connecting them. The affected areas are still witnessing increasingly tragic conditions due to the continued bad weather conditions and the heavy rains in the area, destroying many tents which led the people who had displaced to these camps to displace again to their acquaintances and relatives in the villages and towns around these camps.
As per Camp coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) over 22 camp clusters are impacted in Idleb and Aleppo. Based on the preliminary estimates, the total number of affected families in these camps stand at 2,329 families (12,000 Individuals). These numbers may rise in the coming days as the water recedes and the extent of damage becomes clear. Idleb is already struggling to accommodate millions of IDPs without sufficient resources and the recent flash flooding has further exacerbated the situation.
The affected IDPs prefer to stay in the locations nearby their sites that is why they are not willing to temporarily relocate to CCCM run reception centres. Most of the affected informal IDP sites are established in flood-prone zones i.e. locations with severe slopes and agriculture lands which make it vulnerable to rainstorms. The absence of proper drainage systems in informal IDP sites and lack of infrastructure in the surrounding areas is another challenge. Roads are not properly gravelled which make access to IDP sites even more difficult. Reportedly, several roads that lead to IDP sites were damaged and water trucks are stuck.
United Nations: More than 67 thousand people have been displaced by heavy rains in northern Syria
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The spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Stephane Dujarric, said today, Thursday: “More than 67 thousand people have been displaced due to the deteriorating situation of floods and the harsh winter in the liberated north of Syria.”
This came in a press conference held by Dujarric, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, USA. Dujarric added, that about 11,500 tents were damaged, which led to the death of one person and the injury of three others, noting that “the United Nations is mobilizing additional assistance to support the affected families.”
He noted that the winter conditions are a source of special concern for an estimated two million two hundred thousand internally displaced people, who are living in inadequate conditions throughout Syria.
The United Nations expressed its concern about the affliction of many displaced families in the camps in northern Syria, stressing that the most important cause of the damage is “the persistence of the funding gap of the global organization amounting to 24.5 million dollars.”
The “Syria Response Coordinators” team had documented the number of camps in northern Syria, as it counted 1,304 camps, including 394 random camps, with a population of one million and 50 thousand people.
The suffering of the displaced in northern Syria is repeated every year with the winter season due to the heavy rains and torrential rains that lead to great damage in the camps, and sometimes lead to the loss of some lives, the displacement of thousands of families and the loss of their shelter.
