Damascus, (SANA) – The cabinet agreed on a package of necessary procedures proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform to settle the people of Hasaka, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor governorates after their temporary migration to the neighboring areas due to the drought.

The proposed procedures included providing job opportunities and alternative income sources for each family through implementing the program of rural women empowerment and allocating SYP 1,5 billion which were transferred to the Agricultural Cooperative Bank to finance 7500 small income-generating projects in the fields of poultry, livestock, food industries and handicrafts.

The Irrigation Ministry was assigned to settle the problem of 9733 registered wells in Hasaka governorate and 5000 unlicensed wells through shifting to modern irrigation, an a number of wells in the villages people had left in the governorates of Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, in addition to allowing every farmer to have a licensed water source and plant 5 dunums of summer vegetables.

The procedures require that the Local Administration Ministry work on providing job opportunities for the inhabitants of the affected areas through carrying out infrastructure projects and establishing special markets for their products.

The Ministry of Housing and Construction was also assigned to provide drinking water through tank trucks while the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has to consider all the returning families eligible for the grants of the Social Aid Fund.

In a statement to the journalists, Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Riad Hijab said the cabinet's decision to implement the empowerment of rural women project contributes to improving the living conditions in the eastern region through new income sources.

He noted that SYP 800 million will be allocated for Hasaka governorate, SYP 400 million for Raqqa governorate and SYP 300 million for Deir Ezzor governorate.

Hijab said these amounts of money will be offered to women in the rural areas as loans without profits, with each loan amounting to SYP 500,000, for establishing small projects.

He pointed out that even the youth who will start their own projects depending on those of women are included in these loans.

R. Raslan / H. Said