General Union of Farmers stresses the continuation of work to repair the government irrigation channels damaged by the earthquake

Damascus – Homs, (ST) – The work continues in the initiative of the General Union of Farmers to repair the main canals and secondary waterways damaged by the earthquake in the countryside of Aleppo, according to Ahmed Hilal Al-Khalaf, member of the executive office of the Union and head of the committee supervising the implementation of the initiative.

Al-Khalaf stated in a statement to SANA reporter that the aim of the initiative is to work to remove the effects of the earthquake and its repercussions on agricultural work and fix the damage caused to government irrigation canals, through the popular efforts. He indicated that it is the first initiative of its kind at the country level and we are working to generalize it with similar initiatives in the rest of the governorates.

Al-Khalaf said that the General Federation of Peasants contracted with the branch of the Military Housing Establishment in Aleppo to carry out repair work at a value of 512.5 million, according to the study approved by the General Establishment for Land Reclamation.

Al-Khalaf pointed out the importance of expediting the completion of work, with the aim of saving the current agricultural season in those affected areas, especially the wheat and corn crops, as the production of these areas last year reached 180,000 tons of wheat and 250,000 tons of corn.

For his part, Engineer Ismail Ismail, Director of Water Resources in Homs, indicated that the Directorate has completed maintenance work related to the Homs-Hama irrigation network at the confluence of the main Homs irrigation channel with the flood-prevention channel at the Siphon Baba Amr site.

Ismail indicated that the maintenance work aims to ensure the passage of the required abundance, and the release and passage of water Cross it towards the northern countryside of Homs and the southern countryside of Hama.

In turn, the Head of the Homs Farmers’ Union, Suleiman Ezz El-Din pointed out the importance of the maintenance that the Water Resources Directorate in Homs conducted for the main irrigation canal in terms of providing irrigation water to farmers in light of the lack of rain and the high costs of irrigation from wells. He indicated that the release of irrigation water today was highly appreciated by wheat farmers in the countryside northern Homs and southern Hama countryside.

Raghda Sawas