The village of Ma'ariya is located in the southwest corner of the Yarmouk Basin region in Deraa province, and so it is located right on the borders with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It was previously controlled by the Islamic State-affiliated Jaysh Khalid bin al-Waleed but returned to Syrian government control in summer 2018.
To learn more about the present situation in the village, I conducted an interview on 30 January 2020 with someone from Ma'ariya. It is clear that one of the main challenges currently is the need to restore national grid electricity to the village and restore electricity infrastructure.
The interview is edited and condensed for clarity. Any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.
Q: What is the number of Ma'ariya inhabitants currently and what are its clans?
A: Number of inhabitants: 4000 people. The clans: al-Khalayla, al-Hafri, al-Oqlah, Damara. All of the rest are small.
Q: How is the services and humanitarian situation from the aspect of national grid electricity, water and public services?
A: Regarding the electricity, there is none. The water: very little, and especially in summer, as the water lines are stolen by the villages from which the supply line passes.
Q: So the people buy water from tankers?
A: In summer all of them buy water by the tanker, and the tanker's cost is 7000 Syrian pounds. As for bread, there is no oven.
Q: So the people have to buy the bread from al-Shajra for example?
A: They rely on the neighbouring village of Abideen and the size of the roll is very small, and the weight of the bundle is less than 600 grams.
Q: And the price of the bundle?
A: The price of the bundle in the oven is 100 [Syrian pounds]. And in the supermarket in the village of Ma'ariya 125.
Q: Are there any services like cleaning or projects in the village currently?
A: Regarding cleaning, yes, praise be to God, it's fine.
Q: Praise be to God. Is there much destruction in the village?
A: Little and it has been renovated by its inhabitants. There are two or three houses [damaged/destroyed] only.
Q: Praise be to God. And the security situation in the locality, how is it?
A: Under the control of the Syrian Arab Army and there is no security disturbance.