89 civil organizations condemn Turkey’s shutting off water access to thousands of Syrians

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – In a joint statement, 89 civil society organizations on Monday condemned Turkey’s deliberate shutting off of access to water for thousands of people, amid an increase in COVID-19 cases in northeast Syria.

Since August 13, Turkish-backed groups have cut the flow of water from the Alouk water station, affecting an estimated 500,000 people in Hasakah city and nearby communities.

Read more: Turkish-backed groups continue to cut water to thousands in northeast Syria amid COVID-19

“Sporadic water cuts have forced the population of Syria’s northeast to rely on unsafe alternatives, endangering their lives on top of their fight against COVID-19,” the organizations said in their common statement.

According to the latest update on Monday from the health authority of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), there are a total of 362 recorded coronavirus cases and 25 deaths in northeast Syria.

Therefore, the signatories said, the Turkish action “puts the lives of hundreds of thousands of people at risk, since washing hands with soap and water is essential to protect themselves against the pandemic.”

The Alouk water station is near the border town of Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye), which Turkey and its militant proxies took over in October 2019 during Ankara’s so-called “Peace Spring Operation.”

After subsequent Russian mediation, Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria have been providing electricity to the Turkish-occupied areas in exchange for the flow of water. But Turkish-backed groups have continued to repeatedly cut off the water, demanding higher levels of power.

On Saturday, an agreement was supposedly reached between Russia and Turkey to resume the flow of water, but local sources say that, so far, no water has yet reached Hasakah city.

According to Thomas McClure, a Syria-based researcher at the Rojava Information Center (RIC), Turkey is demanding 70MW of power to be delivered into the areas that it has controlled since October 2019.

But “this is almost the total capacity of the Mabrouka power station, which must also deliver power to AANES-controlled regions with many times the population,” he told Kurdistan 24.

Bassam al-Ahmad, Executive Director of Syrians for Truth and Justice, one of the signatories of the statement, explained to Kurdistan 24 that Turkey is trying to use the water as a weapon to pressure the AANES to provide more electricity to areas under Turkish control.

“So, therefore, we call in this statement for the water station to be controlled by a neutral party, to ensure that all people, all civilians in northeast Syria, benefit from any kind of resources of water and electricity in a fair way.”

“It should be controlled by an international, independent, and neutral committee,” he continued. “This is the only way to prevent Turkey from using this as a card.”

Ahmad added that whenever Turkey has problems with Russia over Libya, Turkey tries to pressure Russia in different ways, including cutting off water to the northeast of Syria.

“For us, it’s very clear that Turkey doesn’t care about civilian lives amid a COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

He noted that Turkey has dealt similarly with Europe, threatening to send three million Syrian refugees to Europe from Turkey, during periods of tensions with the Europeans. This happens, even as Turkey claims to ‘protect Syrian refugees.’

The signatories of the statement called on the international community, including the European Union, the United Nations, and the US, to pressure Turkey and its affiliated local councils to resume the flow of water and ensure there is no “repetition of such cuts under any pretext.”

Editing by Laurie Mylroie