Reena Ghelani, Director of Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Remarks on behalf of the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, 25 October 2022
UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
25 Oct 2022
New York, 25 October 2022
As delivered
Thank you, Mr. President.
As the Special Envoy has referred to, communities in Syria are caught in the middle of a spiraling security, public health and economic crisis. They are basically struggling to survive.
Allow me to share the latest facts.
The conflict continues to cause civilian death and injury, primarily along front lines. As the Special Envoy has already described, the ongoing active fighting and the impact on civilians and civilian infrastructure are continuing.
According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 92 civilians were killed and 80 were injured in August and September alone.
Twenty-seven of those civilians were killed by explosive remnants of war. Syria reports some of the largest numbers of victims of explosive ordnance worldwide. Two out of three victims are children. And the deaths and injuries do not stop when active fighting stops. These weapons pose a lasting, deadly threat to civilians.
Security operations in Al Hol Camp in August and September damaged shelters and temporarily restricted people's access to humanitarian assistance and services. In addition, many children were detained, and humanitarian partners still lack access to these children.
Mr. President,
Allow me to give a little more detail about the cholera outbreak that is rapidly spreading throughout Syria, made worse, as referred to, by the country's severe water shortages. More than 24,000 suspected cholera cases have been reported, and cases have been confirmed now in all 14 governorates. At least 80 people have died so far. This is a tragedy, but it should not come as a surprise.
Millions of people across Syria lack reliable access to sufficient and safe water, and the health system has been devastated by over a decade of conflict.
Insufficient and poorly distributed rainfall in many places, severe drought-like conditions, low water levels in the Euphrates River and damaged water infrastructure are all factors compounding this outbreak.
From 11 August to 20 October, the Alouk water station was unable to service close to 1 million people in Al Hasakeh city and surrounding camps with water. Reportedly, some water reached Al Hasakeh city on 22 October.
A similar situation is unfolding in Al Bab, in Aleppo, where 185,000 people still face severe water shortages.
The United Nations and our partners have been sounding the alarm on the water crisis in northern Syria for the past year at least.
The crisis is likely to get even worse: The outlook from now to December suggests an increased probability for below normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures. If this materializes, it will further exacerbate an already dire water crisis.
The equation is simple: When people drink the same contaminated water that they use to irrigate their crops, and when they do not have sufficient water to practice proper hygiene, waterborne diseases spread, causing people, especially children, to fall ill and sometimes die.
The three-month cholera response plan, coordinated by the United Nations, requests just over US$34 million to assist 162,000 people with health services and 5 million people with water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance. Our two pooled funds, the Syria Humanitarian Fund and the Syria Cross Border Humanitarian Fund, will make around $10 million available to partners across the country.
We are grateful to the donors who have pledged new support to the cholera response, but much more is needed. It is also now critical that donors convert their generous pledges into early disbursal of funding.
Mr. President,
Water scarcity has also affected crops and farmers' livelihoods, driving prices up and putting food further out of reach for millions of people.
Syria is now experiencing its lowest wheat harvest since the crisis began, following two consecutive seasons of drought-like conditions.
Food insecurity is spiraling out of control and malnutrition rates are rising.
Syrians today can only afford 15 per cent of the food they were able to purchase only three years ago.
The lack of water leaves affected communities, particularly women and girls, more vulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse.
We are just weeks away, Mr. President, from another winter in Syria, and a painfully familiar scenario will soon unfold. Snowstorms, sub-zero temperatures, strong winds, rains, and flooding are expected to hit soon. Over the past decade, we have seen, year after year, what this means for families living in tents and makeshift shelters.
We have also seen how severe fuel and electricity shortages make it very, very difficult for families to keep warm and for essential services to keep functioning.
This year, the number of people who need winterization assistance has increased by a staggering 30 per cent across the country compared to the previous year.
In the north-west, some 2 million people depend on winter assistance to meet their most basic needs. Most are women and children living in camps with limited or no access to heating, electricity, water, or sewage disposal.
Humanitarian partners have launched a winterization response, but it remains grossly underfunded, with the shelter and non-food items sector funded at just 10 per cent.
If this gap is not filled, families will not receive the heating, fuel, blankets, and winter clothes they desperately need to keep warm.
Mr. President,
The United Nations and our partners will continue to provide life-saving assistance such as food, water, health, and protection services to millions of people across Syria.
And because early recovery and livelihood activities are a core pillar of the humanitarian response, we are providing more than life-saving assistance. We are supporting the repair and rehabilitation of critical civilian basic services. We are providing access to electricity for basic services. And we are removing debris and solid waste, launching income-generating activities, and providing vocational and skills training and interventions to support the social cohesion of communities.
But we need support on two crucial aspects:
First, we need access to all people who need humanitarian assistance. This includes continued cross-border access and increased cross-line access, in line with what international humanitarian law requires of all parties to armed conflict.
A non-renewal of the authorization to carry out cross-border humanitarian assistance at the peak of winter, and in the middle of a massive cholera response, could cut off access to millions of people in the north-west of Syria just when they need it most.
At the same time, we need the continued facilitation and support of all parties to increase cross-line access throughout the country. In the north-west, the eighth cross-line mission to Sarmada, in Idleb Governorate, was completed over the weekend. The inter-agency convoy delivered 503 metric tons of food for more than 56,000 people, as well as nutrition, shelter, water, sanitation items, health kits and other supplies.
Secondly, we need urgent funding. Almost 11 months into the year, our humanitarian appeal for Syria still faces significant funding shortages.
We must bring the world's focus back to what the women, men and children of Syria need most: immediate aid, early recovery, hope for a dignified life and a better future.
And above all, they need peace.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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