Malaria, Irrigation, and Soil Erosion in Central Syria

THIS study of the Selemiya region of central Syria had its origin in a modest wartime public-health program. Hundreds of patients suffering from malaria in the villages of this district were regularly treated by a mobile clinic, and it soon became obvious that this work had to be supplemented if not replaced by swamp drainage and other measures of malaria control. The necessary investigations showed that soil erosion in the hills in the east of the region was partly responsible for the swamps on the plain. The swamps themselves were frequently associated with ancient irrigation works. Thus various problems of the region-agricultural, social, and medical-were closely linked in origin and development. It was found that attempts to solve any one of them alone could not be more than partially successful, and the conclusion reached was that the ideal solution would have to be radical, comprehensive, and on a large-scale regional basis.