ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there is a need to consider long-term and multi-scalar effects of Ba'athist agricultural policies and state subsidization schemes across Syria and the ways that these link to the emergence of contemporary water crisis in urban Damascus. Water scarcity crises are geographical, as the effects of drought and mismanagement lead to collapsed livelihoods, and in turn intensified migration from agricultural regions in Syria towards urban centers. First, the chapter reviews literature on development and modernization in urban and rural water governance in order to explain why the critical silences on state development policy matter. Second, it examines policy documents, statements by experts and reform projects from Damascus and Syria to understand the contemporary mainstream framing of the water crisis. The chapter concludes with a brief synthesis of the argument that water scarcity crises imbricate a diffuse set of factors that create dynamic problems, meriting dynamic solutions that go beyond marketization of the water sector.
