Eastern Syria faces ‘catastrophe’

Source: The National

Free market economic reforms have helped create a “catastrophe” in eastern regions of Syria, greatly exacerbating the effects of a devastating drought, according to leading critics of government policy.

Speaking at a weekly meeting of the Syrian economics society, a group of high-profile academics said a decision to end fuel and seed subsidies just as the drought was at its peak had destroyed the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers.

In addition, the academics said subsequent efforts by the authorities to mitigate the impacts of severe water shortages had come too late, been insufficient and been hampered by corruption.

According to the United Nations, 1.3 million people in the eastern region of Syria have been directly affected by the drought. The World Food Programme (WFP) is currently implementing a second emergency operation in the area, handing out aid packages to families who have been surviving on little more than tea and bread for months. Malnutrition is rife in the region and rising, UN officials say, one describing the crisis as “very, very serious and persistent”. The WFP operation was supposed to begin last month but was delayed because international donors were late in supplying funds. As it is, the WFP has received only US$5.3 million (Dh19.46m), a quarter of what it says is necessary to feed those suffering from serious malnourishment...

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100210/FOREIGN/702099949/1041

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This is very serious and the world has ignored the crisis up until now... :(

condemning free market principles. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to wait until everybody has starved to death before passing judgment on a thing like that?

from the Market that they should not live in those draught-prone areas. Or that the Syrian economy cannot feed
so many people. If not for the market reforms, they would have never found out and continued to live in complete
ignorance of those truths.

as our ideologically organized troops on our Supreme Court?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a66b4d0-1146-11df-a6d6-00144feab49a.html

Yes, very little coverage; but it seems the Syrian government itself has been denying any problem till recently, and eastern Syria isn't the kind of place where independent reporting comes from.