Doha: In partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs’ (OCHA) Syria Cross-border Humanitarian Fund (SCHF), Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) is supporting food security and livelihoods in northern Syria, by pruning trees and laying irrigation pipelines.
The project aims to create jobs through reviving and expanding three medium-size irrigation projects in Salqin, Idlib Governorate.
The project is aimed at ensuring self-sufficient and economic empowerment for farmers, as well as creating jobs for internally displaced people (IDPs) and the host community, by establishing three medium-size irrigation systems for 290 hectares of agricultural lands and pruning 67,000 olive trees.
The irrigation activities include the maintenance of old basins, gates, and intake wells; rehabilitation of the 1.8km Farouqi irrigation canal; extension of a 5.1km irrigation network and a 9.7km distribution network; construction of a power supply network to the pumping rooms; provision of three high-voltage transformers, 22 transmission towers, distribution panels, and cables; and installation of seven 75-150 m3 capacity medium-flow pumps on the Orontes River.
To secure livelihoods for the target villages, the project employed 140 workers in tree pruning and 40 workers in the digging and rehabilitation of irrigation projects.
At the end of the project, the management boards of water users association will be trained to manage the project, to ensure sustainable services for farmers.
Since 2016, QRCS has been implementing strategic and sustainable projects in northern Syria, with numerous major irrigation projects that most benefited the beneficiaries and helped them to stay in their lands, instead of migration in search for another source of living.
Examples of these irrigation projects include Al Ruj Plain, Al Ghab Plain, Al-Alani, Idlib, Afrin, and currently Salqin.
