After the Turkish airstrikes against the infrastructure in Rojava, the Democratic Autonomous Administration together with initiatives of international solidarity are developing ecological solutions.
While the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North-East Syria is working on alternative and sustainable ways of energy management for years already, after the airstrikes carried out by Turkey in the winter of 2023/24 and the consequent destruction of power stations and basic infrastructure, the strive for new sustainable ways got even more intense. These are being put in practice by different institutions and organizations involved in the revolution collectively. Also as Make Rojava Green Again we want to contribute to this common effort, and together with the Citypartnership Berlin-Kreuzberg & Dêrik and the municipality of Dêrik we are working on construction of solar panels to operate a well for drinking water.
The construction of the solar panels were completed by the end of July
While there is a need for energy in different sections of society, water supply is one of the basic needs, especially during the hot summers.
Compared to other cities and regions of North-East Syria, the water resources are quite good in Dêrik, which is due to its location close to the mountains of Northern and Southern Kurdistan. While the whole region is affected by the anti-water politics of Turkey, that systematically dries out the rivers that flow from North-Kurdistan to Rojava, the region around Dêrik, in the South of the mountain Cûdî, is quite resilient.
What is it important to know, is that since the war against ISIS, the occupation of Efrîn and Serekanî and the ongoing political and military unrest in other parts of Syria, a lot of people fled to the city of Dêrik, being very remote from the effected areas. This led to the growth of the city and the increase of its population. This also has effected the water supply of the city in general. The growth of the city reaches also quarters which are relatively high, here the natural water pressure is not enough to fill the water tanks of the houses and electrical pumps are needed to pump the water.
This is usually done with diesel generators. Obviously, these are en masse harmful for the environment as well as for the health people living in their surrounding. But more than this, the Diesel to operate these generators has become increasingly expensive since the last airstrikes carried out by the Turkish state on the civil infrastructure such as oil refineries. One solution for these problems are wells that are operated by solar panels.
Meeting of the commune Şehîd Selim, where the solar well is being constructed
The municipality of Dêrik already built such solar-powered wells in one of the central quarters of the town and in this sense Dêrik became also an example for the region. Inspired by this, the Citypartnership Berlin-Kreuzberg & Dêrik started a new project to build a Solarwell in one of the fastest growing city quarters of Dêrik. The Water institution of the Municipality and Make Rojava Green Again are coordinating the project on site and are responsible for regular communication between all the subjects involved, maintain contact with the communes and ensure that the population is regularly informed.
By now, the end of June, the foundation as well as the scaffolding for the solar panels have been already constructed.
The implementation of solar energy faces difficulties especially because of high import taxes, which are consciously imposed by the authorities that control the borders of the region, mainly the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP), which claims to be a Kurdish party but approaches the progress made in Rojava, by the Kurds and the other populations of the region, with hostility. To push forward sustainable energy resources in spite of these hardships, projects like this alongside with the campaign Solardarity are very important attempts.
The beginning of the construction
The area of the Solarwell in the South of Dêrik before the start of the construction