Written by Muayyad Al-Ashqar and translated by Jihad al-Hajj

The fuel crisis and the lack of heating oil began to cast a direct shadow on the environment in Hama after people here began to rely on firewood as an alternative to heating since the beginning of winter

Taher Abbas says that cutting trees from gardens and roadsides has become a profession practiced by many people in order to earn a living by selling them as firewood, even if that tree is fruitful or for personal use for heating

Taher- 50 years adds that no one has shown responsibility for combating this phenomenon, which has now become a general phenomenon that you see in any garden or road, as today we see the Hama – Homs road almost devoid of forest trees that have been planted for decades

Taher explains his point of view to Hama Today newspaper by saying :” officials in Hama or anywhere else in Syria cannot prevent this phenomenon because it takes place during the night and away from the eyes of observers in the municipality or whoever is responsible for following this phenomenon. Then, whoever cannot provide people with fuel for the winter and does not give them alternative means will not be able to stop this phenomenon, which has begun to hide entire forests of trees and turn them into a desert

It is not only the felling of trees that directly affects the environment here, but the resulting gas emissions and fumes resulting from the burning of those trees in places that are not primarily intended for firewood to be used weigh heavily on the streets that are choked with black fumes and houses whose residents are sick because of heating even on garbage if firewood is not present

This bad environmental phenomenon has led to worse social phenomena until the neighbors are in constant conflict because of the fireplaces that emit black smoke and enter the neighbors ‘ houses through the windows

Lieutenant Ali Jaber – a pseudonym, in the external Department in the neighborhood of palaces says that conflicts between neighbors have abounded since the beginning of winter and the reason is always the smoke and the smell of the material that is placed with firewood in order to ignite it is often nylon, which causes a very unpleasant smell

Umm Youssef, a widow living in the Bab al – Balad neighborhood, filed a complaint against her neighbors who cook and heat on the remnants of dirt and a little wood and cardboard that her sons collect during the summer in order to use it in winter, whether for cooking, heating or even boiling a teapot, Umm Youssef says

The case continued until it reached the court and Umm Yusuf did not lose her right to the police station because she and her children suffered from illnesses and coughs due to neighbors, as she put it

She adds that she was shocked when the court could not do anything for her and only forced the neighbors to write a pledge that they would not light fires again, but of course this did not happen