BARADA VALLEY, Syria, May 20, (AP): Inside a mountain above the Syrian capital, Hassan Bashi walked through tunnels that used to be filled with water from a spring famous for its pure waters. The spring rises inside the ruins of a Roman temple in the Barada Valley and flows toward Damascus, which it has been supplying with drinking water for thousands of years.

Normally, during the winter flood season, water fills all the tunnels and washes over much of the temple. Now, there is only a trickle of water following the driest winter in decades. Bashi, who is a guard but also knows how to operate the pumping and water filtration machines in the absence of the engineer in charge, displayed an old video on his cell phone of high waters inside the ruins. "I have been working at the Ein al-Fijeh spring for 33 years and this is the first year it is that dry,” Bashi said.

he spring is the main source of water for 5 million people, supplying Damascus and its suburbs with 70% of their water. As the city suffers its worst water shortages in years, many people now rely on buying water from private tanker trucks that fill from wells. Government officials are warning that the situation could get worse in the summer and are urging residents to use water sparingly while showering, cleaning or washing dishes.

"The Ein al-Fijeh spring is working now at its lowest level,” said Ahmad Darwish, head of the Damascus City Water Supply Authority, adding that the current year witnessed the lowest rainfall since 1956. The channels that have been there since the day of the Romans two millennia ago were improved in 1920 and then again in 1980, he said.

Darwish said the springwater water comes mainly from rainfall and melted snow off the mountains along the border with Lebanon, but because of this year’s below-average rainfall, "it has given us amounts that are much less than normal.” There are 1.1 million homes that get water from the spring, and in order to get through the year, people will have to cut down their consumption, he said. The spring also feeds the Barada River that cuts through the capital. It is mostly dry this year.