Project to solve water crisis in Syria’s Hasakah 30% complete

This report by Basem Shuweikh was published by North Press Agency on 15 February, 2021

On Monday, Suleiman Arab, co-chair of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) Local Administration Board in Jazira, said that they have completed more than 30% of the project to draw water from the Euphrates River to Hasakah.

The project, which the AANES [Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria] started in late 2020, aims to draw water from the Euphrates River from Sawar station to Shaddadi water station, and then on to station 47 in Hasakah countryside to Hamah water station in the city.

After Turkish troops and armed opposition groups seized Alouk water station following a military operation in 2019, the station was subjected to looting and destruction in addition to repeated water cutoffs to nearly a million people amid international warnings of an impending humanitarian disaster in light of the outbreak of coronavirus.

In a statement to North Press, Suleiman Arab said that they were facing difficulty in securing the necessary supplies for the project.

“It was scheduled that the project would be finished by the end of March, but due to malfunctions and the difficulties we have faced, possibly it will be finished by the end of April,” he added.

Jazira Region Executive Council of AANES is implementing this project in coordination with a local organization that is funding this project.

The Syrian government had brought the project of drawing the Euphrates’ water into service before the crisis; however, it was subjected to looting and destruction by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Islamic State (ISIS) in addition to several airstrikes by the Global Coalition.

The project has a budget of 1.5 million US dollars, according to a previous statement by Jazira Region Local Administration Board.