Stabilization Committee: We Create Life

On 18th March, 2018, Afrin was declared “liberated” following a two months’ long campaign by Free Syrian Army factions backed by Turkish forces.

Within days, Stabilization Committee’s Rapid Response was already in action. Experience acquired in the Euphrates Shield area – notably Jarabulus, Azaz, Al Bab – enabled Stab Committee to put its competence to work in Afrin without delay. In anticipation, as for all eventual Newly Liberated Areas (NLAs), Stab Committee had already drawn up a highly detailed description of Afrin: “An Initial Report on Afrin” prior to liberation while it was still under YPG PYD control.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF « INITIAL REPORT ON AFRIN »



The Afrin District is divided up into seven sub-districts with 360 villages and towns with a population of 523,258 inhabitants in 2012. The population is made up of Kurdish tribes and families and Arab tribes whose villages were captured by the People’s Protection Units – YPG. There are two civil registries – one for the YPG and one for the Assad regime.

Water Source – the Midanki Dam ( April 17th Dam) situated on the Afrin River which provides potable water to Afrin and Azaz. There are many springs and sources – some provide drinking water, others for irrigation and some go dry in summer. Most towns and villages have good water networks.

Bakeries – 18 bakeries with flour locally supplied or from regime-held areas.

Electricity – there has been no electricity in the city since 2013. Diesel generators run by YPG provide electricity and revenues to YPG. YPG buildings use solar energy.

Education – some schools are run by YPG with a different curriculum. In general there is a lack of electricity, water, heaters and desks in schools.

Agriculture – a grain centre in Afrin with a large warehouse. The 13 million trees in Afrin make up one fifth of all the trees in Syria. Crops include walnuts, almonds, figs, grapes, pomegranate; wheat, lentils, barley; vegetables, sugar beet, cotton…

Industry – production of traditional hand-made carpets. Olive oil is produced in 250 olive mills – 92 sophisticated or 158 traditional. There are 10 soap plants produced in the area and 18 olive husk plants.

There are more than 25 closed mosques and 60 villages have no mosques at all.

ASSESSING NEEDS AND PREPARING REPORTS.

The next step was to assess the needs and priorities once the area liberated. So the day following liberation, a Stabilization Committee team entered Afrin City conducting in-depth meetings and visits with locals, former employees and technicians to assess the urgent needs and prepare reports related to water, bakeries, waste management, and other services sectors.

The result: “Afrin: Needs Assessment Report” which will serve as a reference here.

Meanwhile, as military actions came to an end in Afrin, many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) began returning to Afrin and its countryside on a daily basis creating an urgent need for humanitarian aid and services. By the end of March, 2018, the Turkish government, the Turkish Red Crescent, the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation – IHH, Stabilization Committee and the White Helmets were in Afrin and its countryside conducting rapid response activities meeting the needs of local civilians and returnees.

According to the Turkish Red Crescent, 97,000 families had left Afrin for Tel Rifaat, Nubl and Zahraa yet within 3 days of Afrin’s liberation, 100 families had already returned to “safe areas”.

There is no permanent local council in Afrin yet as committees of Afrin notables and community representatives meet to form a board to represent the city and its seven sub-districts.

SUMMARY: AFRIN – NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT MARCH 2018.

Stab Committee prepared this report within its rapid response plan for Afrin city to highlight the needs for water waste management education health and food security.

Introduction.

The Afrin District is situated 60km to the north west of Aleppo varying between mountains and valleys at between 700 to 1296 meters above sea level and depends on the Afrin River for its farmlands. It is divided up into seven sub-sections with 366 villages. It covers 2% of the total surface area of Syria and depends largely on its agricultural sector with about 18 million olive trees, 30,000 pomegranate trees and grapes, cherries …

Afrin District: Population.

The 2012 census for the Afrin District noted 523,258 inhabitants. Today, in 2018, former officials estimate the population is probably closer to 800,000 inhabitants including 300,000 IDPs – however, no official statistics are available. Today Afrin City’s population is considered around 100,000 in the city center. At the same time, large numbers of IDPs are waiting for roads to be opened so they can return home.

Assessing Specific Needs.

Stabilization Committee members paid field visits to Afrin city immediately following its liberation to assess needs, collect data on the services sectors and assess the damage to infrastructure. They interviewed previous engineers and technicians and personnel who had worked in the main services institutions as well as physicians and nurses. They also interviewed the local population.

Map of Afrin

The resulting report aims at assessing the current situation in Afrin city in terms of water, bakeries, waste management, roads, schools, and health in order to deliver a rapid response to the specific needs of public services and infrastructure.

High Priority Needs of the City:;

*Operating the stand-by pumping centers

*Providing public bakeries with operation support

*Facilitating access to health centers

*Providing fuel within the city

*Opening and cleaning roads

Water Resources.

One of Stab Committee’s priorities is to improve access to water as water shortages remain an important problem for the local population. Moreover, the return of many IDPs to Afrin now can only aggravate the situation even more.

The Midanki Lake provides drinking water for Afrin which is pumped to purification stations in Sharran where it is purified and sterilised then pumped to tanks and to city neighbourhoods. There are also well-water stand-by pumping centers in the city and surrounding villages used as alternatives should the pumping station fail.

The Midanki Dam – April 17th Dam – situated 1.5km from Midanki village and 20km from Afrin City, has a reservoir capacity estimated at 115 million cubic meters. The lake is 14km long and has two outlets – one for drinking water, and the other for sanitation. The dam is out of service at the moment as the electricity panels and horizontal panels have sunk into the water and the generator has been destroyed while the level of water is rising.

The Stab Committee team was not able to fully inspect all pumping centers due to the danger of landmines in most of the vital utilities in the city.

Waste Management.

Waste Management is another of Stab Committee’s priorities, in particular, opening and cleaning roads in order to make life easier for inhabitants. Rubble and garbage had not been collected for some time making life particularly difficult. So Stab’s team launched its waste management campaign in the city renting the necessary

equipment as it had all been destroyed, recruiting waste collectors and working in co ordination with the White Helmets who helped open the roads as part of this campaign.

Waste management projects should eventually include equipment and operational support to remove war signs in the area.

Health Care.

There are 6 hospitals, 40 pharmacies and 50 physicians in Afrin City. Prior to the liberation of the City, the medical supply route was cut off resulting in a shortage of medicine directly affecting public health centres and hospitals run by non-governmental organisations such as the Al Salam Public Hospital.

Other problems encountered include a lack of staff as some health sector members had recently left the City and the difficulty for people to reach medical centres.

Mobile clinics are needed to solve the problem of accessibility inside the City and towns. Most hospitals inspected were intact in terms of structure.

Education.

Schools are not working for the moment, nevertheless, there are two public schools with about 17,000 pupils and 2 private schools with about 15,000 pupils and 19,000 children in 8 primary schools.

Several schools were inspected and their structures were found in tact while other buildings were inspected simply from the outside but would be inspected more thoroughly when they were declared mines free.

Bakeries.

There are four bakeries in Afrin city; two public and two private ones.

Public Bakeries.

The Al Thura bakery has four production lines with a total capacity of 60 tons per day. It is intact with a warehouse containing spare parts and requires simple periodic maintenance along with operational support.

The Judi bakery has one production line with a daily capacity of 8 tons. It is operating currently with one single working shift producing 4 tons per day and requires operational support.

Private Bakeries.

The Abu Imad Bakery is working well with a daily capacity of 8 tons.

The Hamad Bakery is working well with a daily capacity of 5 tons

Production in Afrin City is 17 tons per day covering about 55% of locals’ needs;

Stabilization Committee considers food security as one of its priority and, with this in mind, it is preparing studies to operate the Al Thura baker

STAB COMMITTEE’S RAPID RESPONSE TEAM AT WORK IN AFRIN MARCH 2018

A humanitarian crisis in the making in Afrin requires assessment and action at once. Prior to liberation, Stabilization Committee’s research team’s “An Initial Report on Afrin” was intended to familiarise and anticipate eventual projects to be implemented as soon as Afrin was liberated.

Once Afrin liberated on 18 March 2018, a Stabilization Committee team entered Afrin the following day to assess specific needs, inspect services and infrastructure despite the danger of landmines and IEDs left by YPG PYD. Interviews were held with local actors leading to: “Afrin Needs Assessment Report” defining priorities.

A week later, Stabilization Committee’s Rapid Response team entered Afrin to implement projects determined by the « Needs Assessment Report » comprising many activities while concentrating on restoring water, checking the Midanki Dam, opening and cleaning streets, providing health care and interviewing returnees to Afrin.

WASTE MANAGEMENT.



As the waste management service had not been working for ten days the garbage bins were overflowing and rubble and waste filled the streets and roads.

The rubble and waste needed to be removed to the landfill nearby Taranda village but all the public utility vehicles and equipment had been burned, except one refuse truck, presumably by YPG and PYD before their withdrawal from Afrin City.

Consequently, when Stabilization Committee launched its waste management campaign in the city, it was obliged to rent all the required equipment in Afrin –

tractors, front-end loaders and trucks and so on. Stab Committee provided operational support while 13 employers were recruited to empty the rubbish bins and remove garbage and rubble from the roads.

Stabilization Committee specified that the following equipment is needed urgently as well as operational support: 10 tractors and trailers; 2 front end loaders; 5 skid loaders; 3 refuse trucks and 50 tool kits for waste management and opening roads.

Stabilization Committee’s team worked in close co-ordination with the White Helmets who opened the roads as part of this campaign. The Syrian Civil Defense team was finally back in Afrin – and happy to be there – to help residents after two and a half years absence when YPG and PYD had closed their center and arrested White Helmet volunteers.

WATER SHORTAGES.



When Stab’s team paid a field visit to check the Midanki Dam, they found the dam was out of service but the dam itself intact.

The Midanki Dam body was, in fact, structurally safe and was not damaged by either fighting or sabotage. However, the generator had been destroyed cutting off the electricity and affecting the suspension of the horizontal pumps. As a result, water up to 125cm high accumulated within the tunnel consequently flooding the pumps. Stab Committee provided a genset and pipes and quickly pumped the water from the dam tunnel in order to reach the electricity panels and horizontal panels, and prevent the electronic equipment from being damaged.

On the other hand, the equipment in the control hall within the dam management building was damaged by combat operations which was not within Stab Committee’s competence.

Stab Committee team providing requirements and emptying the tunnel of water.

Operational support includes supplying fuel for generators for the water supply

As Afrin’s main source of drinking water, Midanki Dam, was out of service, Stab’s task was to ease water shortages by making water available for the population.

Afrin Water Pumping Station

The team activated three pumping centers in Afrin city; Dersim, Al Ashrafeyya, and Al Sharea Park thus providing water to the local population’s houses. They also activated drinking pools where water was not provided by public networks. The Al Mahmoudia private well is also in operation where water tankers can fill up.

Once Stab’s team had restored water, another SC team took over working side by side with White Helmets trucking in water and hosing the roads clean in Afrin City.

A technician was recruited and operational support provided at Al Sharea Park. While Stab’s team activated two out of six of the stand-by pumping centres, the others remain inactive for the moment.

When the water flowed in Afrin at last …and smiles on the faces of Stab’s team in Afrin for a job well-done following the activation of two pools pumping centres.

The team included members from Jarabulus and Azaz working out of Azaz which is only about 22 kms away from Afrin compared with Jarabulus about 145 kms away. There was no Internet available in Afrin at the time.

On the same topic, the Azaz Local Council and the Turkish Water Directorate were conducting maintenance to activate the pumping process and provide both Azaz and Afrin water networks with water.

HEALTHCARE.

Stabilization Committee provided an ambulance with its own medical staff and conducted field tours examining patients and distributing medicine for chronic diseases along with antibiotics as certain medicines were in short supply. Some cases of diarrhea and skin diseases were encountered.

MEETING RETURNEES.



On a more personal level, a Stab Committee team met recent IDP returnees to Afrin to evaluate their specific needs for their well-being to be integrated into a future project. The main questions concerned the number of people who had returned and what their most important needs were as well as enquiring into the availability of bread and water and how they managed to secure both prior to their departure from Afrin.

The presence of armed FSA members in such “idyllic” surroundings brings home the reality of Afrin’s recent liberation.

Stabilization Committee’s activities continue in Afrin with its Azaz team as members from Jarabulus returned home for the moment to return perhaps in a near future.

Conclusion.

Stab Committee’s Rapid Response team implemented many activities in Afrin and its countryside following its liberation including rehabilitating three water pumping centres, applying a waste management campaign, opening and cleaning roads, removing rubble and waste and conducting field tours with Stab’s ambulance and medical staff providing medical services. Time will now be wisely spent preparing proposals to operate the bakeries and pumping center along with waste management projects to provide the best response in all circumstances for Afrin.

Please click on following links to consult:

Initial Report on Afrin

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15A_zYGr12N0XYBbAhYmxb5fnF4qIwLAo/view

Afrin Needs Assessment Report:

Cliquer pour accéder à Afrin_Needs_Assessment.pdf

My thanks to Moetaz Abo Ryad for sharing his photos he took while in Afrin with Stab’s team and his patience for replying to my endless questions.