Water supply to 500,000 people in Hasakah cut again: SOHR

Alouk supplies nearly half a million people in Hasakah city and nearby areas with water.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2021/11/29 08:56

A Syrian woman carries a container of water provided by the UNICEF in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakah, on July 8 2021, after disruption in water supply from the Allouk station. (AFP photo)

Syria Syria Water scarcity northeast Syria SDF Turkey

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday that the supply of water from the Alouk station in northeast Syria had been cut off again for two days.

The power station is controlled by Turkish-backed groups that occupy parts of northeast Syria. On Nov. 25, these groups reportedly stole electricity poles in a village near Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye).

Alouk supplies nearly half a million people in Hasakah city and nearby areas with water.

The Syrian Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA) and Syria's state news agency SANA have also reported the water cut and the theft of electricity poles.

ANHA claimed that the Turkish-backed groups did not allow the Al-Hasakah Electricity Directorate to enter the village to repair the damaged power lines.

The Alouk water station is near the mixed Kurdish-Arab border town of Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye), which Turkey and its militant proxies captured in October 2019 from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during Ankara's so-called Operation Peace Spring.

Since then, Turkish-backed groups have regularly cut the water flow from the facility.

Turkey has denied it was responsible for the cutting of the water. Ankara has blamed the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES) for cutting electricity to Allouk, which it claims causes the water shortages.