The Arab Islamic Ministry expresses in Washington its rejection of Israeli violations

Among piles of straw and small dry sticks gathered under a simple tent, Muhammad Qarman sits trying to form bundles of straw and prepare them for the fireplace.

“We collected it during the summer,” the young man residing in the Andalus camp, in the northern countryside of Idlib, told Asharq Al-Awsat, continuing: “The farmers do not charge the straw. We will use it for heating; Because firewood and peel are expensive, and all prices are in dollars.”

Heaters of pistachio shells, hazelnuts, or apricot seeds are widespread for heating, as they are easy to ignite and smoke little, and although their use has increased in the region over the past years, they are considered beyond the reach of the broader segment of the population, 91 percent of whom need relief aid, according to UN estimates.

In northwestern Syria, choosing winter heating materials is no longer a simple matter, as the rising rates of poverty and the scarcity and high cost of basic materials, in addition to the continuous decline in relief aid, have made warmth a luxury that not everyone can afford.

Multiple options… and the situation is the same

Even though temperatures have begun to drop at night, residents of the area are still postponing lighting the heaters, while the price list hanging in the square, which Ayman Haj Lattouf uses to display types of firewood and bags of pistachio shells and hazelnuts, shows a decrease in prices, ranging between $110 and $220 per ton. Of heating materials, sales are slow.

In Ayman’s opinion, the economic conditions that people live in are the reason for the lack of demand for purchases, as “the prices are high; Because the region is a war zone and unemployment is widespread, the worker cannot receive a wage of more than one hundred liras per day, and this is not enough to buy bread and food.”

Firewood is the cheapest material available for heating; Because it is a local product, and despite the shrinkage of forest areas over the past years; Due to random logging, it is still widely used, and the price of a ton of firewood ranges between $110 and $150.

Diesel heaters, which were the most widespread in Syria before the war, are no longer a realistic option either, as fuel is no longer easily accessible to the area stuck between warring parties, and their high prices have made their use decline in the face of alternative solutions.

Turkey provides coal, pistachio shells, hazelnuts, and apricot seeds, which constitute 80 percent of heating materials, according to Ayman’s estimate, who estimated that the prices of these materials decreased this year by about $70 per ton compared to last year’s prices.

The price of a ton of pistachio shells is $200, apricots are $220, and hazelnuts are $168. While these materials provide fast and clean combustion compared to firewood or pyrene (blocks formed from olive seeds and used as a heating material), their prices are linked to export and are subject to rise or interruption. As a result of the cessation of trade movement for one reason or another between northern Syria and Turkey.

Storing heating materials is also not a solution that eliminates the risk of material shortages for residents, who are sometimes forced to search for bags of chaff throughout the region, because they require a large space to store the amount needed to warm families during the winter months. For merchants, storage is a risk that they cannot bear if prices fall in Turkey after they buy large quantities.

Warmth at the expense of health

Muhammad Qarman knows that his summer supply of straw will quickly be consumed by the winter, and he will have to secure a replacement. For him, there is no viable option other than firewood, despite the harm it causes to his two young children, who develop chest allergies from smoke every year.

“I have a choice,” Muhammad said: “Either I bring medicine for the children, or I bring them heating materials… We cannot remain without heating during the winter, and when we light firewood we are forced to take the children to the hospital again, so we spend the whole winter in the hospital.” To the tent, and from the tent to the hospital.”

In a report issued on November 7, Doctors Without Borders warned of the dangers of using alternative heating methods made from waste, plastic, and shoes. Because it harms children and the elderly, especially when they are exposed to cold-related diseases, respiratory diseases, and infections, she called for increasing winter support for those in need.

Most of the residents of informal camps depend on collecting waste from the sides of the roads to burn it to obtain some warmth, in addition to making heating blocks from animal dung or cardboard, or collecting old shoes and clothes and everything else available for burning without pay. However, these materials, in addition to their health risk, are quickly exhausted. During the long winter months.

For Muhammad, working on agricultural lands for a week provides him with the price of one hundred kilograms of firewood, but he will not have to buy food for his family to be able to secure it. The danger of firewood is not limited to chest allergies, but rather to the outbreak of fires and suffocation at night if it is not ensured that the embers are extinguished before sleeping.

United Nations estimates show that about two million people reside in camps in northwestern Syria. Most of these camps are random and lack basic services. Their need for help in securing basic needs increases year after year, and purchasing heating materials is also becoming more difficult.

There are 5.7 million people in urgent need of winter assistance across Syria, and those needs include adequate shelter, heating materials and winter clothing, said Director of Operations and Advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Edem and Serno, in her address to the Security Council last week.

So far, caravans and safe shelters have been provided to about 100,000 people, or about 26,000 families, and work is underway to provide them for about 7,000 other families.

But with the funding shortfall for the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan reaching 70 percent, “it is difficult to provide more,” said Wasserno, describing these low levels as “unprecedented” for a humanitarian disaster of the size of the Syrian one.