Abdul Aziz al-Khalifa, Ziad al-Halabi, Abu Khattab al-Numairy, Baladi News
The Syrian regime has deliberately isolated the rebellious cities and neighborhoods then cut off all the food supplies from reaching the cities and prevented coming into and out of the cities by embarking on bombarding them, as part of the policy of collective punishment which the regime is practicing against the rebellious civilians against the governance of "Bashar al-Assad". The regime raises against its opponents who are residing in the liberated areas the slogan of "Hunger or Submissiveness", however, Syrians have chosen to withstand in their liberated areas and started to adapt to the siege through dispensing from the unnecessary and devising methods to produce all what they need to remain steadfast.
The United Nations have only expressed concern about the people who have been denied food and medicine and considered in statements to some of its officials that the siege is an old tactic of war that forms a clear violation of the international law. According to the United Nations, about 400,000 thousand people are living in the besieged areas.
In Damascus countryside, Syrian regime has sieged the cities and towns of the eastern Ghouta and imposed a siege on the liberated cities of the western Damascene countryside, in addition to the southern part of Damascus, within its systematic policy which was called "Hunger of Submissiveness" since late 2012; the people in the region resorted to different ways to meet their needs.
Revolutionary Alternatives
In this regard, head of the local council in the city of Saqba, Abu Assem, said: "We have been living in the eastern Ghouta for 4 years without electricity, water and a communication network, that's why we resorted to generate it through waterwheels. The people also resorted to compensate the huge lack in fuel by collecting plastic and refining it. As for the water, the besieged civilians resorted to digging wells which they used instead of the water network cut off by the regime.
Abu Assed added in his speech with Baladi News that the people have increased the areas of cultivated lands and even used the small gardens of houses to plant the vegetables, while the large areas were planted with wheat. Whereas concerning the bread, we have learnt to make our own bread after the normal and automated bakeries stopped working along with the inability of the remaining few bakeries to meet the needs of population.
Regarding the health and medical condition, Doctor "Saad" from eastern Ghouta said: "We have encountered many difficulties due to the regime's cut to the roads between the capital and its countryside and consequently preventing the patients from going to the capital's hospitals as well as preventing the access of medications into the besieged areas, which resulted in the death of several patients due to the lack of medicines, especially among the children who need to be put on a "ventilator", but there is only one ventilator in all Ghouta. He indicated that the nurses in the medical centers resorted to work in rotation in order to ventilate the children manually.
Doctor Saad continued: "There are some medical specializations in which only one doctor left on the level of eastern Ghouta and some other specializations are no longer found within Ghouta, which forced the specialized existed doctors to work extra hours daily and in different specializations".
He pointed out that due to intense lack in the medical supplies in general and painkillers in particular, we started to reduce the amount of oral, muscle and venous painkillers which must be given to the injured.
In the western countryside of Damascus, specifically in the town of Madaya, the continuous power cut led to the deterioration and scarcity of water amounts in the town besieged by "Hezbollah's" militia.
Firas al-Hussein, member of the Inofrmation office in Madaya, said that the scarcity of water in Madaya is not new, as the city has been suffering from it for 6 months. He explained that the advent of summer and the severe heat wave which hit the region exacerbated the water crisis.
al-Hussien indicated that despite the existence of some springs and sources of water in the mountains, but they are not enough to provide all the necessary water for the residents of Madaya, while the solution lies in the United Nations hand which have to enter the necessary fuel into the city in order to operate the existed wells in it.
"Oum Amjad", one of the besieged in Madaya, told Baladi News about her suffering by saying: "We are a family of 5 members; we always need water, especially for children, so we resort to borrow our neighbor's donkey to bring water from the spring". She indicated that the people in Madaya cooperate to feed the donkey, which is considered the only available means of transportation to bring water.
Burning Tyres…a Brilliant Jamming Means!
In the absence of an effective jamming means that can completely or partially disturb the vision systems of the Russian warplanes which are committing daily massacres in Aleppo, some activists and military personnel have launched a campaign to burn the tyres of the cars in the city of Aleppo and its countryside, using the black smoke emitted from the burning of tyres which formed a huge black cloud over the city, aiming at camouflaging and paralyzing the ability of Russian warplanes to bombard the rebels' targets.
The campaign of burning the tyres was launched in conjunction with the battel of breaking the siege of Aleppo which started five days ago to support the rebels forces in attacking and misleading the Russian and Syrian warplanes.
The dissident major pilot, Yasser Houmaidai, commander of Jonoud al-Rahman Brigade, said in an interview with Baladi News: "The civilians led by children residing in the countryside of Aleppo have burned the tyres along the western and southern countryside of Aleppo, along with all the liberated neighborhoods within the besieged city of Aleppo, which formed a huge black cloud of smoke over the city that disturbed the warplanes when bombarding the rebels' strongholds. The thing that contributed to alleviate the great pressure caused by the warplanes which sometimes have a greater role in stopping several operations. It also contributed to the rapid advancement operation and controlling several areas without any losses".
Agriculture alternatives (The Besieged Aleppo as an Example)
After the advancement of regime forces and the supporting Iranian and Afghani militias and controlling al-Castello road, Aleppo's lifeline and the only and last exit before the civilians to cross towards the countryside and entering the foodstuffs and vegetables, the local council and some of the neighborhoods' councils started to look for alternatives through which they achieve self-sufficiency for the besieged civilians with the city which are 300 thousand people, most of which are women and children. Moreover, hundreds of families embarked on working with the alternative plans which are planting the roofs and gardens of their houses with some kind of vegetables.
Fares Mirei, a civilian from the besieged city of Aleppo, who has planted vegetables on the roof of his house, told Baladi news: "hundreds of families started the process of farming with the beginning of the siege, either by planting the roofs or gardens of their houses, pointing out that there are some vegetables in the markets which come from the existed orchards within the city, but at very high prices. Moreover, when these vegetables come to the markets, you can hardly get some due to the large demand for them".
It should be noted that there are no plans by the local council to contain these lands and orchards along with planting them and selling at regular prices, as every vendor put the prices as he wants with the absence of any body to hold him accountable under the siege.
Water Alternatives (Aleppo and its countryside as an example)
Residents of the liberated cities and regions are suffering from the problem of water shortage and scarcity. The city of Aleppo, which contains the largest amounts of water in the world, water resources have been permanently cut off since the second year of the revolution, which forced the residents of the city to look for alternative water resources that compensate them for potable water coming from the oceans.
The media activist, Ahmad al-Fida'a, told Baladi news that "the water cut in the city of Aleppo is linked to the power cut, as it's almost impossible to pump amounts of water from the main station towards the sub-stations existed within the city and distributing them on the residential houses unless the electricity is available".
He added: "the local council depends when pumping water towards the residential neighborhoods within the city of Aleppo, on the main regular electricity, however, regime forces are deliberately bombarding the transferring stations within the outskirts of the city or cutting the cables extended between the areas under their control and the rebel-held areas, which in turn leads to long hours of power outage in the rebel-held areas, not to mention that the power outage leads to the inability of operating the water pumping stations.
Due to all these problems, the residents in the city of Aleppo looked for another means through which they can provide water, as many of them started digging wells with a depth of 20 to 30 meters, which is a space in which water is not potable. Many medical campaigns have warned the families of the dangers of drinking the water of such shallow wells, however, the residents didn't respond to such campaigns due to the lack of any other alternative than wells along with the inability of the local council to provide the necessary diesel to run its huge electric generators due to their exorbitant prices and the lack of roads to bring them".
As for the rural areas, the people resort to purchasing "tanks" of fresh water from the farm's wells which spread in the Syrian countryside. Some of the farm owners have turned into selling water due to its large demand. The price of one tank reaches 500 SYP which equals one US dollar according to the current exchange rate.
Electricity Alternatives (Al-Quneitra as an Example)
Searching for alternative means of electricity has become the preoccupation of the inhabitants of Syrian governorates, especially the rebel-held areas. In fact, providing electricity has become a far-fetched dream in light of its permanent cut on the opposition areas which the regime has deliberately targeted all the infrastructures in them, including power transformers and poles of low and high tension, which led to a complete power outage in the Syrian cities and towns.
Many villages and towns have been living without electricity for almost four years. So people have found alternatives such as car batteries, solar energy, electricity generators that work on diesel, along with diesel generators and amperes which are expensive due to the increasing prices of the necessary fuel to run them and the lack of electricity.
Abo Sae’ed, a civilian in Nab’e al-Sakher town, told Baladi news: “Generators and batteries are not affordable to all people”. “Power outages have become normal, as we haven’t seen electricity for more than 4 years. We can’t afford to buy a generator so we depend on our neighbors’ generator for a few hours a day. We also boil the water using wood fire to do our laundry and depend on the light of candles during the night”, he added.
He also said: “There is a great demand for purchasing chargers and generators, which led to increasing their prices. As a result, people are now using solar energy which is much cheaper than generators and fossil fuel.”
In his turn, Ahmad Yusuf, told Baladi news: "Due to the power cuts and the high prices of fuel, I had to buy a solar panel and a 100 amps battery with 1500 watts transformer, this can provide power for only three hours a day and the LED lights can work for 8 hours approximately during the night. However, I faced many problems; in winter you don’t find much sunlight or heat so I had to use my car's battery. Solar energy has become available in hospitals too, as it’s really cheap”.
Nayef al-Khaled, a surgeon at the civil hospital in the countryside of al-Qunietra told Baladi news: “I was assigned to supervise the solar energy system in the hospital, which was installed with the support of international organizations, it costed about 25 thousand US dollars, including batteries, solar panels and other energy equipment. This power is generated by raising batteries' effort to generate power to the hospital, while the batteries are charged by using the solar panels. Now we could offer emergency services faster than before”, noting that this system has saved the hospital form purchasing diesel which needs at least 15 to 20 liter a day.
One of the alternatives is “Amperes”, as it’s become a common business in liberated areas. The owners of diesel generators distribute power on many houses using a circuit through which the amount of electricity for every house and shop is controlled. The monthly cost of electricity for four hours a day is about four thousand SYP, which is considered a big amount of money to people suffering the hardships of war and who are barely working to feed their families.
Ali, a civilian from Qunietra, said: "The continuous power cuts forced us to rely on diesel generators. We use one 20 watt generators; 15 people use it for five hours for 100 SYP per day, taking into consideration that many families are too poor to pay that amount of money. However, we face many problems, the hardest of which is to get the diesel which is really hard to be afforded in many ways.”
The Besieged Areas…Exacerbation of the Suffering
Several areas in Syria are suffering from the siege imposed by regime forces, Hezbollah's militias, SDF militias and ISIS, which are:
Jayroud, Al-Ruhaybah and Al-Dumayr
The towns of Jayroud and al-Ruhaybah which are located in al-Qalamoun region (east of Damascus), are considered two arenas for the attacks of the regime and ISIS, in addition to being under the regime's besiegement since April 2013.
The city of al-Dumayr in al-Qalamoun (northwest of Damascus) also suffers from the regime's besiegement and is witnessing clashes between the members of ISIS on the one hand, and the factions of (Ajnad al-Sham, Jaish al-Islam, al-Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham) on the other hand.
Eastern Ghouta
Around a million people from eastern Ghouta of Damascus countryside are suffering from regime forces' besiegement which have been imposed on its cities and towns since December 2012, in addition to the lack of power and potable water.
According to the records of the Local Coordination Committees in the city of Duma in Damascus countryside, 601 people were killed in 2015 in the city only, 42 % of them killed by the air raids, while the rest due to malnutrition.
The City of Al-Tall
Regime forces have been imposing a military and humanitarian siege on about one million civilian living in the city of al-Tall north of Damascus since June 2015.
Yarmouk Camp, Darayya, al-Muadamiyat, Kanaker
18 thousand civilians in Yarmouk Camp (Southeast of Damascus) have been suffering from regime forces' besiegement since December 2012, as one part of them (which is besieged also by ISIS) was forced to leave and seek asylum. Moreover, about 3500 people have been in pressing need to clean water, food and medical supplies for two years.
As for the city of Darayya (west of Damascus), regime forces have been besieging around 10 thousand civilians in it since 2012. Furthermore, more than 2000 people were killed due to the regime's airstrikes, while some local sources in the city said that the regime bombarded about 1000 barrel bombs on the city.
40 thousand civilians living in Muadamiyat al-Sham in the western countryside of Damascus have been suffering from a stifling besiegement imposed by the regime since 2015, while the town of Kanaker in the southern countryside of Damascus has been witnessing a siege since March 2015.
Al-Houla, Talbiseh, Al-Rastan, Al-Wa'er Neighborhood in Homs
Regime forces and Hezbollah's militias are still besieging some parts of al-Wa'er neighborhood in the city of Homs (in the center of Syria), while the cities of al-Houla, Talbiseh and al-Rastan (north of Homs) have been suffering from besiegement for 3 years.
Dier Al-Zor
ISIS has been besiegeing several neighborhoods (al-Qusour, al-Joura, and Mintaket al-Jameiate) in the city of Dier al-Zor for nine months, where more than 100 thousand people live in them.
The regime is adopting the policy of besiegement and hunger against the civilians in the liberated cities and towns, aiming at pushing them to conclude conciliations with it, raising its long-heard slogan "Hunger or Submissiveness".
It's noteworthy that the famine crisis suffered by besieged Madaya for more than 6 months has made a significant impact on the world public opinion, as more than 20 civilians were killed during last December in the city which Hezbollah surrounded by mines aiming at preventing the exit of the besieged civilians or entering foodstuffs into it.
Manbij
It's located east of the city of Aleppo and is controlled by ISIS. The city has been besieged by "Syrian Democratic Militias" (SDF), supported by international coalition aircrafts for more than two months. According to local councils, more than 200 thousand civilians are living in the city.