Water cut to Syria's Hasakah city cut since October: SANA

The Alouk water station stopped working in October affecting at least one million people in Hasakah province.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2023/12/11 00:03

The residents of northeastern Syria are grappling with a severe water crisis, depending on water truck deliveries (Photo: UNICEF/UNI325083/Albam)

Syria Alouk Water Station Hasakah northeast Syria Water Crisis

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Syria's official news agency SANA reports that water to the city of Hasakah has been cut since October from the Alouk water station controlled by Turkish-backed forces.

The director of the water establishment Mohammed Othman told SANA that the station stopped working on Oct. 3 due to Turkish-backed groups.

The Alouk water station is a critical source of water for around one million people.

Haid Haid, a fellow at Chatham House, writing for the Tahrir Institute, said as a result households are forced to purchase expensive water brought in by tanker trucks.

“To ease this burden, local authorities and NGOs have initiated efforts to provide free water deliveries to the population,” he wrote.

Since Turkish-backed groups took control of the Alouk water station in Oct. 2019, the water cuts have had a severe impact on one million people residing in Hasaka Province.

This comes amidst decreasing water levels of rivers in Syria due to global warming.

According to a report of Human Rights Watch (HRW) from October this has also given rise to poor sanitation and outbreaks of water-borne illnesses and disease, including cholera in September 2022.

“Turkey and other parties to the conflict should also engage with the UN’s ongoing efforts to facilitate approval of a monitoring mechanism, and adequate operational and maintenance capacity of Alouk water station and Derbasiyeh electricity substation,” HRW said.