Sun rises on Ramadan in a Middle East hit by earthquake and water shortages

The Sun rose on Thursday on the first day of Ramadan in a region that suffered a huge earthquake last month and faces an array of other challenges.

Some Middle East residents will be celebrating the holy month while dealing with water shortages, soaring prices and economic crises.

For the second year, Ramadan is taking place against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, which began in February last year.

This has disrupted grain exports from Ukraine and Russia and caused prices to soar around the world — with a particular impact in Yemen and Lebanon, which are in the midst of economic crises.

In recent days, Lebanese people criticised a shop for pricing lentil soup — a Ramadan staple — at $5, as part of the outlet's iftar menu. This comes at a time when food prices have gone up by 2,000 per cent, in some instances, since 2019.

A Twitter user under the name Falullahh asked: “If a casual place like this is charging this much, what will 'fancier' places be charging? A kidney?”

In Yemen, providing drinking water is a burden that largely falls on the shoulders of women and girls, who often have to drop out of school to be able to walk long distances to fetch supplies for their families.

In the Arab world's poorest country, water was already difficult to find before the conflict between the internationally recognised government and Iran-backed Houthi rebels began in 2014.

Now, 90 per cent of the population relies on some form of assistance for survival and development projects are vital for millions of people.

Local non-governmental organisation Food4Humanity has just completed a solar-powered water station in Yemen's south-western province of Ibb, helping 11,500 people in five villages.

“We don't go to school. We can't,” a young Yemeni child said in a video published by the group.

“We are busy travelling to other nearby villages to carry water back home. So, we don't have time to go to school.”

This year, too, is the first time Ramadan is being spent away from home for many of those displaced by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Syria and Turkey in February, killing more than 52,000 people across both countries.

“We used to look forward to Ramadan as the most beautiful month of every year,” Rama Jamal, 19, told AP, recalling how her family would decorate the house and sit together reading the Quran.

Now, she lives alone in the war-ravaged northern Idlib province of Syria. After surviving more than a decade of war, her parents and brother were killed in the earthquake.

“Now I’m by myself, and there’s no mood of Ramadan, there’s no joy,” Ms Jamal said.

“I’m missing my family all the time, every hour.”

The Ramadan fast is one of Islam's five pillars and a requirement for all able-bodied Muslims, with the exception of children, people who are sick, pregnant, breastfeeding and menstruating women and people who are travelling.

In addition to from refraining from drinking and eating from dusk until dawn, observant Muslims are also required to abstain from smoking and having sex during the fast.

Swearing and angry outbursts are also discouraged.

During the month, many Muslims spend more time reading the Quran, often aiming to read it from cover to cover.