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It has never occurred to the 61- year-old Nadim that one day he would be busy checking his water tank atop his four-storey building every couple of hours to see the water level rather than spending his retirement times vacationing as he always dreamed.
In the first days of the Syrian crisis, people's talks were focused largely on politics and aspirations of broader democracy and freedoms, but after more than three years into the conflict, the scarcity of electricity and water has become the main topic, taking the people's minds away from politics, to some extent.
Syrians in the capital Damascus main talks now is the hours- long outages of water and electricity, even though their country's conflict has yet to be resolved.
Nadim, who prides himself as one of the most successful engineers in Damascus, said his plans for his retirement was to travel with his wife abroad, to lay down on a beach and to spend some quality time after working hard during his life to sustain for his family and raise his kids.
Ironically, he is now spending his time checking his water tank every few hours to see the water level with the scarcity of drinking water in the country and long-hours of electricity outages that also affect the small generators that push the water upwards in the water tanks of people's houses.
"Now I am reprimanding my kids for using more water instead of enjoying my retirement. It's really ironic that now I have to carefully schedule my shower times so that I don't waste much water," he said.
Nadim is one of many Damascenes who now spend their times either checking their water generators in basements or on rooftops filling their tanks with buckets of waters from here and there.
Bassam Hanna, the minister of water resources, recently indicated that the size of the water problem in Syria is "big and harsh," attributing that problem to the climate circumstances and lack of rain this year.
The minister stressed that rationing the consumption of water has become an urgent need due to limited sources of water and the drought that has stricken the country, particularly the capital Damascus.
In the outskirts of Damascus, the business of distributing water has become a lucrative one as a lot of traders have started hiring cars with water tanks to fill up the tanks of the people for high prices, prompting the government to control this phenomenal by overseeing that process and the prices as well.
The water scarcity has also revived the selling of water generators as the majority of Syrians are now rushing to replace their old generators with new ones.
Youssef, a 33-year-old technician, along with his neighbors bought generators from the Damascus' central district of Hariqa.
"Almost the majority of shops there now are bringing new generators to meet the high demands of the people," he said, adding that the water problem, in his opinion, is even worse than the electricity, as the majority of the houses in Damascus suffer from at least six hours of electricity outages on daily basis.
Syria's ministry of oil estimated last month the overall direct and indirect losses in the electricity sector at 23.5 million U.S. dollars. The ministry further declared a 70 to 150 percent rise in the prices of electricity to cover the losses.
The Syrian government has for long accused the rebels of targeting the infrastructure of the country, particularly after the so-called Islamic State militants had captured almost all of the oil fields in eastern Syria while other radical groups repeatedly targeted electricity stations around the capital and in the central region.
Syrians now pin hope on the new government that is expected to be formed within two days to find practical solutions to the problems that are affecting the very basic needs of citizens.
