God Punishes Damascus
Today, the River Barada that runs through Damascus looks like this:
But men in their forties can tell you that they remember swimming as children in the river on Friday outings with their families, when, they say, the water so clear that you could drink it straight from the riverbed.
Several decades before that the river used to flood, like this:
So what happened to all the water? Some say it’s due to the exploding water demands of a capital city in an urbanizing country, but crotchety and conservative old men disagree: actually, they say, God took away the water in order to punish Damascus for the moral degeneration of its inhabitants.
If there’s a more precise explanation of the water disappearance, it seems it won’t be forthcoming for a while. A friend of mine proposed to write a paper on water usage in Syria—a silly, ten-page paper in Arabic for one of our classes—but the proposal was nixed by a government official at the Language Center. Apparently it’s not okay to seriously research such a topic, along with many others; its better if we busy ourselves with silly moral squabbles, while the river dips lower and lower.
yaser said,
March 26, 2009 at 6:36 am
it depends on who you speak to , some will give you factual reasons , like the migration from the countryside and mismanagment , and some will blame a natural or a supernatural force, both ways this is very sad the river seems to be receding even further than last year when it rained , I had those photos, take a look:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=barada%20river&w=27836610%40N00
Sarah said,
March 27, 2009 at 2:50 am
don’t worry, i do know that not everyone in damascus believes in the divine hand ladling away the river water.
and wow, this was just one year ago that you took the photos? it’s much lower this year. i suppose that’s due to the drought all over the country.
Sasa said,
March 27, 2009 at 6:24 am
It depends what part of the city you take the photos. I remember the river level being around the same last March as it is this March. And don’t forget, last winter was much drier than this one. Out in the suburbs it seems to flow more freely than by the time it gets to Jisr Ar-Rais and the Old City.
In 2002 I remember it was gushing like I’d never seen it before. Out in Rabwe we could barely hear ourselves speak because it was flowing so fast! There were posters across the city celebrating the rebirth of the river.
The Barada has a mind of its own. If it would like to pay us a visit soon, it would put a smile back on many people’s faces.
Sarah said,
March 28, 2009 at 11:16 am
Definitely! A few days ago at night I walked past the Barada twice with a friend, a Syrian guy, about ten minutes apart. At first there were lights along the river, and on the second pass by we noticed that they’d been turned off. My friend said, “I guess the authorities decided this isn’t a sight we need to see very well.”