Over 20 days | Nine water stations suspended depriving nearly 300,000 people of drinking water

Nearly 300,000 people in villages and towns of eastern Deir Ezzor from Abo Hardob in the west all the way to Al-Baghoz town in the east, suffer power cuts for over 20 consecutive days, with inability of the Committee of Services in the eastern area to provide the area with fuels to operate the water pumping stations.

The area depends on nine water pumping stations that require electric current to operate, which are “Al-Kashma, Al-Baghoz, Al-Layz, Hawama, Al-Sosa, Sor Al-Shaafa, Al-Marashda and Hajin water stations”, where all these stations stopped providing the region with water except for Hajin station which is likely to stop operating.

Moreover, the administration of Al-Kashma water station in Deir Ezzor countryside announced that the station will stop operating due to lack of diesel, despite the area being rich of oil derivatives and despite the station receiving its allocations for a month.

According to the Committee of Services, the water institution does not provide diesel to water pumping stations, under the pretext that a service electricity line is present, while it does not sufficiently feed the stations. Meanwhile, the fuel office in Deir Ezzor Civil Council refuses to provide the stations with fuel, under the pretext that these stations belong to the Committee of Services.

With the power cuts, residents in these villages and towns were forced to use tankers to transport water from Euphrates river, amid a state of discontent among residents for absence of action by the concerned authorities to find a solution, and amid public demands to provide allocations of fuels to the eastern area, as one of their rights.