By Fadi Al-Hussein
MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) – Muhammad Rizk, 34, a citizen from the city of Manbij in northern Syria, complains about the frequent power outages, where it serves only for two or three hours a day, then resumes the outage for the next day amid a high rise of temperatures.
Rizk said the electricity situation in Manbij is “very bad”, and the company’s water is “scarce”, where it is available every three days for several hours and resumes the outage.
He told North Press that the city also goes through a water crisis where it interrupts for a long period, and the residents are unable to install alternative energy like solar panels to operate the water pump motor for water drawing.
Therefore, they resort to secure water from water tankers, where a 1,000-liter tank is filled in exchange for 20,000 Syrian pounds (SYP, about $1.6).
Continuous electricity outage
Residents of Manbij complain about the continuous outage of electricity in light of the high temperatures, amid Turkey’s continued preventing of Euphrates water to flow in Syrian territories.
Many of them cannot install alternative energy, like solar panels, due to its high prices, where the price of one solar panel reached about $90, and only the rich can buy and install them, according to Rizq.
The young man called on the international community, the United Nations and the humanitarian organizations to pressure on Turkey to allow Euphrates water to flow towards Syrian territories.
The water level of the Euphrates River has dropped by five meters recently due to Turkey’s seizure of the river’s water. The flow rate has been limited to 200 cubic meters per second, which is a serious breach of the 1987 water-sharing agreement signed with Syria and Iraq under the United Nations’ supervision.
The 1987 agreement stipulates Turkey’s permanent commitment to pumping 500 cubic meters of water per second from the Euphrates River towards Syria.
The continuous decline in Euphrates water threatens all aspects of life, as preventing river levels to flow for more than 30 months warns a humanitarian and environmental disaster.
On July 25, Hamoud al-Hamadin, an official at Tishrin Dam, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), said the dam operates for only six hours a day, after 85 percent of its lake water level was depleted.
Tishrin Dam, some 20 km southeast of Manbij on the Euphrates River, is considered the second largest power station in Syria after the Euphrates Dam in Tabqa. The dam is at the risk of stop operating at any time. This will occur if the dam reaches the dead level, less than 320m from sea surface.
Decrease and complications
Hajar Nassif, 29, a resident from Manbij, also suffers from power outages and a decrease in the hours of supplying the city with electricity.
“The great suffering of the residents in general in Manbij is due to the lack of electricity,” Nassif told North Press.
Electricity rationing hours in Manbij have increased significantly recently, where power supply hours per day reached only four hours out of 24 hours.
The city is supplied with water every three days and it lasts two hours before the power outage, as many residents of the city cannot fill their tanks with water, forcing them to buy them from tankers, and filling a 1,000-liter tank costs about 20,000 SYP, which increases the suffering of the city’s residents.
Nassif believes that the costs of installing solar panels have become very expensive, and there are many residents who do not have the ability to do so, as most of the residents in the city are poor and cannot secure alternative energy or buy water continuously.
Euphrates River has recorded the lowest inflow due to withholding water by Turkey for more than thirty months, al-Hamadin stated.
Ibrahim al-Muhammed, 46, a resident from Manbij, also complains about the continuous power outage in the city, which increases the suffering of the residents amid high temperatures. The man said the reason for the power outage is due to low water flow of the Euphrates River.