For second Time in week, residents of Syria’s coast protest against poor services
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – On Sunday, a group of residents of the villages of Safita on the Syrian coast blocked the highway between the city and the coastal governorate of Tartus, in protest against water pollution.
Residents of Safita countryside told North Press that a number of residents of the villages of Zarqat, Yahmour and others blocked Safita-Tartus highway, in protest against the pollution of drinking water.
A participant in the protests denied that there had been clashes between protesters and police forces.
He described the protests as a peaceful demonstration. He said that there were no problems, and all what the residents were asking for was just the removal of the dangerous garbage that reached the drinking water.
“The landfill polluted all the water in the surrounding villages until it reached the groundwater,” he added.
“The residents have repeatedly called for an end to the tons of waste, but no one has responded. We had nothing to do but to protest, because no one responded,” the source told North Press.
Hassan Eid, a resident of the area, posted on Facebook regarding these events, “protesting is the only way to make them hear us and solve our problems.”
Last week, local media quoted Ratib Ibrahim, a member of the Executive Office in Tartus, confirming that citizens were infected as a result of water pollution in the project of Beit Ismail, Yahmour and the old Karam Bayram project.
He pointed out that the solution is to move the landfill to a new location that has been designated for the governorate, and demanded residents not to use the polluted private wells’ water, whether for drinking or for domestic use.
Two days ago, residents of the coastal town of Jableh protested against the shortage of bread, where they set fires and raised their voices demanding the abolition of the “bread rationing” mechanism, after they were unable to obtain their allocations of bread.