Damascus, Syria – Nasri Tadros sweeps dust away from the electric scooters parked outside his small shop in central Damascus.“I have three generators for my shop, and this runs on batteries,” he said, pointing to a battery-operated lighter he uses to fire up charcoal. He stepped into the narrow shop that he rents, where he has worked for the past two years, selling and delivering products for hookahs.Around Damascus, solar panels and diesel generators are a common sight. During the harshest years of the war, they supplemented the sparse state-provided electricity, which only came a few hours a day between long cuts.As Damascus enters the summer months, there is concern about the dry heat, which reaches the high 30s in Celsius (up to almost 100F). However, locals say that while cuts are still common, electricity has recently improved to five or six straight hours of supply before a cut.“Nothing can work without electricity,” Tadros said, the air conditioning blasting away inside his modest store.ProgressBy the end of the dynastic rule of the Assad regime – father Hafez (1970-2000) and son Bashar (2000-24) – Syria was left in ruins. A popular 2011 uprising was brutally repressed by Bashar and the country slowly crumbled until a rebel operation forced the longtime ruling fam …
