Spotlight: Syrians plagued by water shortage as rebels stem supply flow

Driving his taxi cab around the Umayyad Square in central Damascus, Samir Alloush lamented the scene of water splashing out of the big fountain in the heart of the square while he has no water in his house.

It's been almost a week since Alloush, who lives in al-Zahira neighborhood south of Damascus, hasn't received a drop of water in his house.

"My nine-month-old daughter needs to be bathed and we don't have water," Alloush bitterly said, making a sudden swerve probably to release some of his resentment.

Last winter was the best Syria has seen in recent years in terms of the large quantity of precipitation. The storage of water in Damascus was said to would last for two to three years, according to officials in the water directorate.

Over five million people in Damascus drink water flowing from the al-Fijah Water Spring, the main water supply of Damascus that gushes out from the town of Ain al-Fijah, some 25 km southwest of Damascus.

The spring's flow reaches up to 25 cubic meters per second in spring time.

Ain al-Figah town, located in the Wadi Barada area, fell to Islamist rebels two years ago.

Reports said the rebels booby-trapped the spring and threatened the government forces that it will cut off the water from Damascus if curtain demands were not met.

Later on, a kind of truce was reached between the authorities and the rebels that the government would allow the entry of food and necessities among other demands and in return the rebels would not cut off the water from Damascus.

On several occasions, the rebels threatened that they will cut off the water from Damascus but they didn't deliver on their threats. They would reduce the amount of water, without completely cutting it, except for one time when they cut it off for three consecutive days last year.

The situation changed until the Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah group launched a broad offensive to dislodge the rebels out of the town of Zabadani near Lebanon and north of Damascus last week.

The rebels who are currently in control of Wadi Barada are allies with those in Zabadani and they were said to have cut off the water until the army stops the offensive on Zabadani, according to many statements issued by the rebels online.

Last month, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi accused the rebels of cutting the water, saying that "the outage of water is a result of the aggressions of the armed groups on the al-Figah Spring and their attempt to control the flow of drinking water."

The rationalization hours of water has increased, resulting in hours-long outages and in some cases days-long with no water, as reported in the districts of al-Zahira, Tadamun and Daf al-Shouk, which have been left without water for over five days.

Reports said the water is now being pumped into the capital from the reserve wells.

The rationalization of water varies according to the areas. In some upscale neighborhoods, the water is still flowing to the houses with no mentionable outage, while others receive water three or four days a week.

But the suffering remains for a large spectra of the Damascenes, who rely solely on the al-Figah water for drinking, whether those who cannot afford the bottled water or those living in areas where only al-Figah water can reach due to the battles.

To cope with the situation, some people opted to buy bottled water or fill their tanks from the water tank trucks, which deliver its services upon the customer's demand amid complaints that the traders behind such business are capitalizing on the water crisis to make extra cash.

Still, those solutions could cost the average employee half of his monthly salary if he wanted to fill water for the entire month.

Haidar, a 27-year-old journalist, said he had to rent a hotel room for one night to take a shower as a result of the scarcity of water reaching his house in the Mazzeh-86 neighborhood in Damascus.

Not only Damascus that has been fighting with the scarce water, Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once an economic hub, has been living without water for 15 straight days.

An official in the Electricity Department of Aleppo was cited by local media as saying that the exceptional circumstances and the recent "ferocious" attack by the armed militants on the city of Aleppo has negatively rebounded on the electricity that feeds vital sectors, like hospitals, and water pumps.

Reports emerging from Aleppo suggested that the rebels in the Slaiman al-Halabi district are preventing the operation of the water pumps, asking the authorities to feed rebel-held areas with electricity in return.

The U.N. children's agency UNICEF warned on Friday that the dwindling supplies of safe drinking water during Syria's scorching summer months pose a threat to millions of Syrian children, who have become more exposed to water-borne diseases.

Since the beginning of the year, Syria has reported 105,886 cases of acute diarrhoea. There has also been a sharp increase of Hepatitis A cases with a record 1,700 cases reported in one week alone last February.

It said the intensification of conflict across the country has caused new waves of population displacement placing further strain on an already fragile water and sanitation network.

"The situation is alarming particularly for children who are susceptible to water borne diseases," says Hanaa Singer UNICEF's Representative in Syria. "With the crisis now in its fifth year, water has become even more scarce and unsafe, and poor hygiene conditions especially among the displaced communities are putting more children at severe risk." Endit