Continuing in the series of posts on the various villages of the Jabal al-Summaq area in north Idlib countryside, we turn now to the village of Kafr Bani in the same area. The information presented below comes from a local source in Kafr Bani.
The current number of inhabitants in Kafr Bani is 5000, including those established in the village and IDPs. Most of the original inhabitants of the village have left because of the war and lack of work.
There is an electrical generator in the village but it has stopped functioning since days ago because of the high prices of mazout in the area. The high prices of mazout have also led to high prices in transportation of water to the village, and it has been reaching the household at a high price that can reach up to 7500 Syrian pounds per tanker of water (sahrij).
Note that to obtain water, the village relies on purchase of water from private wells that are far off from the village, for even though there is a well next to the village, it is not in operation because the pumping motors are not functioning, and the local council and inhabitants cannot afford to meet the high cost of pumping and the elevated cost of fixing the motors.
As for the local council itself, it can only offer some small limited services like garbage removal and contacting aid organisations to provide even food baskets. But most of the work of the aid organisation is in the big localities and their work in Kafr Bani is almost non-existent.
The rise of the value of the dollar relative to the Syrian pound has created many problems for the people of the village, the majority of whom work in agriculture and rely on their crops to live, and the dollar has reached around 1000 Syrian pounds per dollar in value, whereas the prices of the crops continue to be cheap, and very much so relative to the rise in the value of the dollar.
However, because of support from the GOAL aid organisation for supply of bread, the price of a bundle of bread is at 210 Syrian pounds currently, and until now there has been no increase in the price because of the support from the aid organisation, and the bread comes from the oven in Kaftin.