Policy Measures for River Water Management in Barada Basin, Syria

抄録

Barada Basin, where the capital of Syria, Damascus, is located, and hence where most of the human activities are concentrated, suffers from serious environmental problems due to the huge migration from rural areas, illegal settlements, industrialization, and urbanization, and overexploitation of environmental media. According to the list of priorities that has been set by Ministry of Environment and WB in 1997 an immediate action plan should be carried out to address the water pollution issues in Barada Basin. Huge amounts of wastewater (domestic, industrial, and agricultural) are discharged every day to the land, Barada and Awaj Rivers without sufficient treatment converting the only-two water bodies in the region to waste dump. In this paper, the water pollution problem in Barada Basin has been analyzed. Simulations of a mathematical model have been run in order to find an optimal feasible policy improving the environmental status in Barada Basin. This model includes an ecological model that describes the behavior of the pollutants and an economic model that describes the market instruments. A set of policies have been proposed based on the simulations.