Official in Syria’s Hasakah holds parties responsible for water outage
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – An official of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in Hasakah held several parties responsible for water outage in the region.
Co-chair of Water Directorate in Hasakah, Nawar Mahmoud Sabri held Turkey and its affiliated armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), responsible for the deprivation of 1.5 million residents from drinking water.
“Before the Turkish occupation of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), Alouk water station used to feed a million to a million and half residents,” Sabri said.
Since October 2019, Turkey has stopped the Alouk station about 27 times.
She told North Press that “After the Turkish occupation forces and their mercenaries controlled Sere Kaniye, they controlled Alouk water station.”
Hasakah has been deprived of drinking water since August 11 due to halt of Alouk water station by Turkish-backed SNA, Nawara said on August 18.
Alouk water station, which lies in the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the northern countryside of Hasakah, is the only water resource feeding Hasakah and its countryside.
The station has been controlled by Turkey and its affiliated SNA since 2019, following the Turkish Peace Spring military operation in which it occupied the city of Tel Abyad in north of Raqqa and Sere Kaniye.
Sabri indicated that the AANES is the party that supplies Alouk station with electricity, and is committed to providing the station with eight megawatt-hours for the station, but yet, there is no water supply.
She attributed the reasons for water outage to multiple infringements by farmers living in the Turkish-run villages on contact line, infringements of power line, and the complacency of Turkey and its affiliated SNA regarding their duties in preventing infringements.
The AANES official called on international and humanitarian organizations to play role to neutralize the station from this conflict.
The water problem in Hasakah has not been resolved yet, despite repeated promises by officials of the AANES to find alternatives to the Alouk station.