The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Kuwaro village north of Idlib, total absence of humanitarian organizations, catastrophic service conditions, and only 2 hours of electricity a day

Kuwaro village is located in the northern countryside of Idlib and administratively it belongs to Armanaz town, it has a population of about 3000 inhabitants, in addition to the presence of tens of displaced families from several villages and towns from the southern countryside of Idlib and the western and northern countryside of Hama, where most of the village’s residents live on a basic source of income, which is agriculture, and the village is famous for growing summer crops such as wheat, barley, and clover, in addition to other crops such as bead, peas, and vegetables, in addition to tens of dunums which are planted with olive and fig trees, the village is living difficult service conditions, amid almost complete absence of humanitarian organizations and insufficient support for the local council in the village to provide projects for it, where the local council operates poorly according to its possibilities.

In their testimony to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, local sources in Kuwaro village spoke about the service and living reality in the village in general, saying: “the service reality is very poor and the most important services provided by the local council is the issue of garbage collection and disposal, and this project has been halted because a large part of the people did not pay the requirements of doing this work, the council appealed to several humanitarian organizations to support the project, and some organizations made an assessment of the situation and provided nothing, while the situation of the roads in the village is also bad and the pits are everywhere, which causes traffic accidents.

As for the bread, the people are suffering to get it after raising its price and reducing the weight of the bag of bread, where it was supported by some parties but then the support provided to the bread furnaces stopped late 2018, which increased the suffering of the local population and displaced people, who are about 150 families in the village, also, the population’s winter preparations may be almost non-existent because of the high prices of heating materials such as gasoline, gas, and firewood, even the winter clothes, all of these items may be a dream for many civilians in the village this year because of their unbelievable cost, lack of support, and lack of income.”

The sources added in their testimony to the Syrian Observatory: “and regarding the electricity, it is available 2 hours a day because of the high cost of diesel, and the sanitation is the biggest problem in the village, there are several sewers need maintenance, and most of the village is not serviced by sewage,  most of the population work in agriculture and livestock, and no party has provided support to the farmers who are unable to grow their land with winter crops, and has not provided any kind of support such as seeds, fertilizers, or pesticides, in addition to these difficulties, the cost of diesel which is needed for the operation of agricultural machines is expensive, while the livestock breeders suffer from high prices of feed and veterinary medicines and inadequate vaccines from organizations. While the education may not be fully present, because of the difficult condition of the only school that needs maintenance and the requirements of the educational process.”

And about the medical situation the sources said: “there is no medical point in Kuwaro town, no pharmacy, or even a nurse to serve and provide assistance to residents and displaced people”.

The sources concluded their testimony by saying: “most of the humanitarian organizations work in big cities and towns which are located on the main roads, while the small villages and towns are suffering from marginalization, deprivation, and the spread of poverty and unemployment among the people, where the organizations set unfair standards to give the poor people of these villages a food basket. We call and appeal to all humanitarian organizations to establish projects in Kuwaro village immediately, to take away the waste and garbage which began to be a source of concern and alarm among the civilians, and provide adequate support to residents of the village, improving the service situation like paving roads, pumping drinking water, and providing electricity and fuel, as well as providing a health center and a school in the village.”

At the same time, the Syrian Observatory obtained the testimony of a displaced person in Kuwaro village, he is from Tal Hawash town in the northern countryside of Hama, the village needs a lot of maintenance and repair work, from paving roads and cleaning streets and the surroundings of the village from the accumulated waste, piles of waste accumulate everywhere and emit unpleasant odors, not of mention the large spread of harmful insects. Each month drinking water is pumped by the local council to the residents’ in the village for less than 2 hours, and the rest of the days we are forced to buy water for high prices, there is no presence for any organization and we have not noticed any organization coming to provide assistance to the villagers and displaced people, and the displaced people in the village are living in a deplorable situation, very high prices, there are so little of food and medical supplies in our houses as winter comes, and it carries with it more burdens.”