SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkish forces and their rebel allies have cut off water supply to people in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, state news agency SANA reported on Monday.
SANA reported that Turkish forces had prevented employees of the Alouk water station from providing the water supply to Hasakah and its countryside.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Turkish forces had suspended pumping of water supplying Hasakah and its western countryside, after power outage in the station in Ras al-Ain town.
“Turkish forces have been preventing workers from accessing to the station since yesterday for unknown reasons,” the Syrian observatory added.
The Alouk station pumps water for 1 million people in Hasakah.
It’s the 18th time that Turkey cut off the water in the station to exert pressure on areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Hasakah.
In October 2019, Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies occupied a 120-kilometre (75-mile) stretch of land inside the Syrian border, including the Alouk power station that supplies drinking water to Hasakah.
The United Nations warned in March 2019 that one of the earlier water supply interruptions from Alouk was putting 460,000 people at risk in the Hasakah area, as the pandemic spread worldwide.
Turkey deems the SDF as a “terrorist group” for links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than 30 years.
