WEB Notes: The bigger story here is the water crisis in Damascus. The city has been ravaged by war and now a water crisis that is affecting 5.5 million people.
“After five ruthless war years, we can have a year of diplomacy, of conflict resolution, and of protection of civilians, it can happen, and we were heartened to hear that Russia and Turkey both said [that] they will facilitate humanitarian access to all civilians as part of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement that they function as guarantors for,” Jan Egeland, a senior UN advisor on Syria, told the media at a briefing at the UN Office at Geneva.
On the current situation in the ground, Mr. Egeland reported that “enormous dramas are unfolding as we speak.”
One such place is Damascus, the capital of Syria.
According to the senior UN humanitarian official, about 5.5 million people in the city have been cut off from water because the springs of Wadi Barada – located just outside Damascus – that accounts for 70 per cent of the water supplies, have been broken. The reason for the supply disruption is yet to be established.