Tal Al Karama: Abu Walid emptied a container of pistachio shells into the top of a heater in his living room in violence-plagued northwest Syria, where millions are bracing for a harsh winter.
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His three children huddled around the hand-made stove, the 35-year-old adjusted the heat with a dial regulating the number of shells burned per minute.
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“Because of a shortage in fuel, we started looking for alternatives,” Abu Walid told AFP.
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“So we resorted to heaters powered by pistachio shells,” he said, sitting cross-legged on a divan in his home in jihadist-dominated Idlib province.
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In recent months, Syria has suffered a fuel crisis that has seen a spike in the price of heating oil and long queues for much-demanded cooking gas in government-held parts of the country.
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The crisis, which officials blame on Western sanctions targeting the Damascus regime, is even more acute in opposition-held areas, where tighter supply has caused prices to soar.
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Outside Abu Walid’s apartment, dozens of sacks of pistachio shells are stacked high. “They are cheaper than fuel, which is not currently available,” he said.
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“They also don’t emit smoke or odour,” he added, explaining why they are better to burn than wood.
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Syria’s last major opposition bastion is home to some three million people, nearly half of whom have been displaced from other parts of the country.
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Despite an August ceasefire agreement and growing calls for de-escalation, regime forces and their Russian backers have heightened bombardment since mid-December, fuelling an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians.
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The mass displacement could not come at a worse time as winter floods hit over-crowded displacement camps.
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The rising cost of heating fuel has made warm homes a luxury in a province where unemployment is high and public services are non-existent.
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But business is booming for Sadeeq Alwan.
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Earlier this year, the man fled the southern Idlib town of Khan Sheikhun, before government forces recaptured the area.
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He moved to the town of Dana, north of Idlib city, where he opened a small workshop specialised in building pistachio-powered heaters.
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The heater consists of a combustion chamber with a separate hopper that feeds the fire with empty pistachio shells.
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Alwan initially thought his clients would mainly be other displaced Syrians from Khan Sheikhun who were used to such jerry-rigged furnaces, he said.
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But now, his 15 employees are barely keeping up with demand.
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“I thought we would only build around 500 heaters,” Alwan said.
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“But until now we have built around 2,500.”
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Floods and mud
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Alwan attributes the popularity of his stoves, which cost about $130 (117 euros), to their cost-effectiveness.
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Pistachios are ubiquitous in the region and shells are sold cheaply as a by-product of processing.
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One tonne – imported from Turkey – can last a whole winter and costs $175, Alwan said.
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Heating fuel, on the other hand, costs about $130 per gallon (3.79 litres), which might only last a month.
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Even though they are a relatively cheap source of heat, pistachio-powered furnaces are not an item most families in Idlib can afford.
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In squalid camps for the displaced, residents survive mostly on aid and barely have enough money to buy food and clothes to keep warm.
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Such is the case in a camp in the village of Khirbet al-Joz.
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The settlement near the Turkish border is home to thousands of people who escaped battles between regime forces and rebels in the northern countryside of neighbouring Latakia province.
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Hussein Berro is one of them.
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Sitting inside his tent, the 51-year-old said life in the camps is especially difficult in winter, when tents flood and roads sink into the mire.
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“I wish I could return home but it’s not safe,” he said, five years after fleeing his home in Latakia.
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“I would prefer heavy rain and floods over a building collapsing over our heads.”
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