Market brief
Syria
The authorities that procure water infrastructure in Syria, how the deals are put together, and what is in the pipeline.
Reference profile for SyriaMarket snapshot
The commercial picture in Syria: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.
Political stability
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Percentile among all countries; higher is more stable.
Investment climate
World Bank Governance Indicators, 2024. Regulatory quality for private investment; higher is better.
Financing & PPP
- PPP frameworkLimited
- Tracked pipelineno disclosed values tracked yet
- Active fundersUN agencies, Reconstruction finance (prospective)
- Climate adaptation planIn preparation
Opportunities
- Infrastructure reconstruction
- Irrigation modernisation
- Wastewater rehabilitation
Key challenges
- Conflict-damaged infrastructure
- Euphrates & Tigris transboundary flows
- Drought exposure
- Institutional capacity
Sources: FAO AQUASTAT / national reports (latest available); World Bank 2023–24. Figures approximate. Governance indicators: World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (2024).
Contracting authorities
The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Syria. Ministries set policy and sign the offtake; utilities run the assets; regulators set the tariff and the service standard.
- Ministry of Agriculture & Agrarian ReformMinistry
- Ministry of Water ResourcesMinistry
- General Establishments for Drinking Water & SewerageUtility
- General Directorates of Water ResourcesBasin & resources authority
How deals are structured
The framework in Syria is Limited, no tracked scheme in the country carries a disclosed value, and the funders most active in the sector are UN agencies, Reconstruction finance (prospective).
Delivery splits by asset class across the region: dams and trunk conveyance are mostly engineering contracts carried by sovereign or development-bank finance; bulk supply increasingly uses build-operate-transfer concessions against a long-term offtake; and distribution work is let as performance-based contracts paid against measured leakage reduction. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.
How to bid
There is no open water procurement market in Syria. What exists in 2026 is a transitional ministry, one multilateral grant procured on World Bank rules, and bilateral agreements signed outside any tender. The Ministry of Water Resources no longer exists: it merged into a single Ministry of Energy on 29 March 2025, and the World Bank names the implementing agency as that ministry’s water resources directorate.52
| The one open door | The Syria Emergency Water Security and Resilient Services Project, approved on 23 April 2026 as part of a US$225 million package of which US$150 million is water. Procurement runs on World Bank rules, with open international competition.12 |
|---|---|
| Sequence | Consultancy first, works after: an owner’s engineer was to be procured from June 2026 and put in place before any works contract is awarded.2 |
| Scope | Water treatment and transmission in Idlib, Homs and Hama, wastewater rehabilitation in Damascus, and dam safety assessments.12 |
| The other route | Direct agreement with the Ministry of Energy, unadvertised. Two examples from 2026: a technical services agreement with ACWA Power, WTCO and Fichtner for a desalination and transmission roadmap under a joint development agreement of February 2026, and an agreement with Saudi Meters Company to supply and install five million smart water meters.45 |
| Sanctions | The comprehensive United States programme has been dismantled: Executive Order 14312 of 30 June 2025 revoked the underlying orders and ended the national emergency, the Syrian sanctions regulations were removed from the code on 26 August 2025, and the Caesar Act was repealed by legislation signed on 18 December 2025. Designations on individuals and separate terrorism, Iran and proliferation authorities remain, so screening and export-control clearance still apply.3 |
Over half of supply infrastructure and about 70% of wastewater plants were severely damaged, and supply is down roughly 40% on pre-conflict levels.1 What could not be established: the procurement code, contract forms, payment security, tax, and the European Union’s position in 2026. No Syrian procurement portal or gazette was reachable.
Regulatory intelligence
| Regulation | Status | Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 Euphrates protocol and Syria–Iraq accord | Operative | 1987/1990 | 500 m³/s at the Turkish border; Iraq takes 58%, Syria 42%. |
| Iraq–Syria shared-waters protocol | Signed | 2026 | Euphrates data exchange; proposal to revive the joint technical committee. |
| Irrigation fee decision No. 5 | In force | 1999 | Flat per-hectare O&M fees; no volumetric pricing. |
| Legacy water law | Transitional | 2005 | Pre-war code; well licensing weakly enforced. |
The institutional landscape is evolving; primary references are the current national authorities.
Projects
Tracked schemes in Syria, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.
Track record
No awards are on the record for Syria yet. The awards log grows with each monthly review.
Pipeline & tenders
Structured procurements and live tenders in Syria, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.
Pipeline & awards
Tenders
Prices
What households pay
| Household tariff (US$/m³) | Cost of supply (US$/m³) | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| not published | not published | n/a |
No comparable schedule is published.
Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.
Watch list
No dated items have been carried forward for Syria yet. This section fills from the monthly briefings as they are published.
Sources
10 references
Project, pipeline and tender records are compiled from procurer announcements, lender disclosures and trade reporting; each project page carries its own source and the date it was last checked. Institutions are from the decision-maker directory. Economic and water indicators are cited on the reference profile.
- World Bank, approval of US$225 million to restore water and health services, 23 April 2026.
- World Bank (2026), project information document, Syria Emergency Water Security and Resilient Services Project (P515199).
- United States Department of State, Syria sanctions, as at September 2026.
- SaudiGulf Projects, on the technical services agreement for a Syrian water infrastructure roadmap, 9 September 2026.
- Kurrant, on the agreement to deploy five million smart water meters in Syria, 16 June 2026, which also records the March 2025 ministerial merger.
- FAO, AQUASTAT — Global Information System on Water and Agriculture: country water resources, withdrawals by sector and dam register. fao.org/aquastat. Latest country values as compiled at build.
- World Bank, World Development Indicators and country water-sector reporting. data.worldbank.org.
- Kaufmann & Kraay, Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank), 2024 update — political-stability and regulatory-quality scores, 0–100, shown in the market snapshot. worldbank.org/wgi.
- World Resources Institute, Aqueduct 4.0 Water Risk Atlas (2023) — the sub-basin risk, stress and groundwater-decline layers on the interactive maps. wri.org/aqueduct.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Numbered references are linked from the superscript markers in the text. Figures without a marker come from the sources above as compiled in the site methodology.