North and East Syria administration begins pumping water to Khabur River in attempt to revitalize it after flow cut off by Turkey

TEL TAMR, Syria — The Khabur River in North and East Syria has always been a source of life and a destination for anyone seeking tranquility and beauty. Perhaps this was a factor for the Syriac (Aramean–Assyrian–Chaldean) when they settled along the rivers banks after arriving in the area from Iraq in the 1930s, seeking refuge after being the target of numerous massacres.

With the start of the Turkish invasion of North and East Syria, the flow of the river soon became a trickle. Drought has made the situation worse, turning the agricultural land on its banks into a barren landscape and the river into a center of diseases.

SuroyoTV correspondent Ahmed Samila conducted an interview with Director of the Likerin Hospital in Tal Tamr, Dr. Hasan Amin, about the spread of disease caused by the dire state of the Khabur.

“Because of Turkey’s cutting off the water flow to Khabur, it has become a series of stagnant swamps that are the perfect environment for sandfly development and reproduction,” Amin stated. Sandflies carry Leishmania parasites which cause Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that has increasingly spread in the Khabur area.

The Democratic Autonomous Administration (DAA) of North and East Syria has begun pumping water to the Khabur River in an attempt to revitalize it.