To encourage summer agriculture in Lattakia.. Construction of dams and pools on riverbeds to secure supportive irrigation

Latakia-SANA

In light of the lack of rainfall and the low percentage of dam storage in Lattakia, Lattakia Governorate worked to establish dams and collecting ponds on riverbeds and streams in separate areas in the governorate to provide supportive irrigation for farmers to encourage them to continue farming, especially in summer.

The director of water resources in Latakia, Firas Haider, explained in a statement to SANA reporter that the lack of water resources prompted us to find emergency solutions in securing water that supports government irrigation by implementing collecting pools on riverbeds that allow farmers to irrigate with their own means, indicating that the governorate worked to secure engineering mechanisms from the directorate and various Public authorities, including the General Corporation of Geology, the branch of the General Company for Roads and Bridges, and the Drinking Water Corporation, which participated in carrying out the works, in addition to the mechanisms of the Directorate of Agriculture.

Haidar pointed out that the main focus in the implementation of these dams came according to statistics on the distribution of crops that need close irrigation, as about 36 ponds were implemented in Zagrine and Bloorin, 12 in Kalamakho and 62 in Al-Safarqiya, with work continuing in Ziyadiya in the Jableh countryside, indicating that the mechanisms are still working according to need. With the permanent presence of technicians with the people and the guiding associations to implement these ponds in a way that ensures that the largest number of citizens benefit from them.

For his part, the Director of Agriculture, Eng. Munther Khair Bek, indicated that as a result of the lack of decoration of the dams, committees were formed to manage the available water resources in the governorate. With the desire of the farmers themselves and the supervision of water resources, he pointed out that until now the number of open ponds has reached 120, benefiting more than 500 farmers and irrigating more than 5,000 dunums in the Qardaha area alone, and these ponds can expand at the request of the farmers, indicating that many farmers have resorted to planting Summer vegetables that they can water in addition to the small plants.

Ghazwan Barakat, head of the Agricultural Association in the village of Al-Bitar in the Qardaha countryside, pointed out that the lack of rainwater this year was reflected in the level of dams that irrigate the lands, and the digging of these dams next to the farmers’ lands enabled everyone to water their crops by placing a plunger or a pump, as more than 300 farmers in the village benefited from it.

“The implementation of these ponds removed a lot of concerns from farmers by providing supportive irrigation for crops,” according to farmer Jaber Kanaan from Kalamakho village, who owns about 5 dunums, indicating that 200 farmers in his village benefited from these ponds.

It is noteworthy that perennial trees do not need supportive irrigation, as the spacing between irrigations from dams is sufficient for them, while the first benefit from these aggregate dams is for vegetable crops, small trees, smoke, timbak and sweet potatoes that require intensive irrigation that the storage quantities in the dams did not allow to be implemented this year.

Bassam Ibrahim