The rehabilitation and building of sewage systems in targeted communities in the Al Marah district of Idleb in order to improve sanitation and decrease the number of waterborne diseases (WBDs) and Leishmanial infections. The main activity in this project is connecting the main sewer network, which extends from Ftireh village to Hbit village, to its sub-network. There will be no houses to networks connections in this project since we are working in the main sewage line outside the occupied areas. This sewer line goes through the rural Idleb villages of Jbala, Sfuhen, Sheikh Mustafa, Hazarin, Maar Tamater, Maarzita, Kafr Nobol, Ftireh, and Maar Tahroma.
SR is proposing to rehabilitate 3.5km of Kafr Nobol’s sewage system, 1km for Maar Tamater, and 1.5km for Jbala’s sewage system and to expand the network to the areas of the town currently lacking coverage. Alternative design might be unacceptable from the community cause about 60% of these areas are agricultural lands. 

More than 74,000 individuals of the villages in the Al Marah district of Idleb suffer from the lack of a functioning sanitation system. The sewage system had originally not been completed by the Syrian government because conflict had started..There are also areas of the towns where sewage flows into open fields, especially on the sub-network that crosses the Kafr Nobol health center, threatening both the environmental conditions of the residents in the immediate vicinity and, through the risk of polluting the drinking water, the health of the entire town.

Syria Relief’s (SR) field team responded to the local community’s complaints in the aforementioned areas due to a sharp increase in Leishmania cases. They conducted field visits to the targeted location and noticed that the local councils do not have the ability to cover the cost of repair or maintenance of their sewage system. SR then launched the assessment phase as we studied this sewage system network.

SR is proposing to rehabilitate 3.5km of Kafr Nobol’s sewage system, 1km for Maar Tamater, and 1.5km for Jbala’s sewage system and to expand the network to the areas of the town currently lacking coverage. Rehabilitating and expanding the network will provide access to sanitation for residents, protect the town’s drinking water network from pollution, and decrease the risk of transmissible diseases spreading amongst the inhabitants. 

As part of this project, SR will unclog the lines that are obstructed but otherwise intact and will install new sewer lines (an estimated 5,000 meters of 800mm diameter concrete pipes and with 1000m of 600m one) for areas either lacking coverage or with broken lines that are unsalvageable and backfilling the excavation with excavated soil. Since access to the sewage system (necessary for the unblocking) takes place through the manholes, many of which are now broken or blocked, SR will have to repair 60 manhole covers, implementing 100 pi of manhole, and repair 15 rain run-off drainage sites to prevent groundwater accumulation during the winter (and the increased risk of transmissible waterborne disease this brings) from Kafr Nobol towards Hbit village. 

SR is also proposing to conduct four trainings in the villages to help the targeted population in terms of hygiene promotion and to better cope with Leishmaniasis cases, waterborne diseases and other related infections.