Insights from Aleppo June 2015

Aleppo

What you are reading is a snippet from life under siege in Aleppo, Syria.  The daily struggle of just one resident battling the brutality and punitive measures taken by the US/NATO/GCC/Israeli terrorist hordes nesting in and around Aleppo.

The writers name is withheld for security reasons but this information was sent to us at the Syria Solidarity Movement today.

“We have water today, after 10-14 days without water service from the government. We spent all the day filling up all empty containers and bottles, the bathtub and water tanks and cisterns at home and on the roof. We had already managed to fill some of them with what we managed to purchase from a merchant selling water!  Aleppo ‘s water comes directly from the Euphrates. In the 1990s Turkey attempted to prevent this water from reaching us, today it is ISIS controlling the dam and most of the Euphrates.   They have also occupied the chlorine factory which was used to sterilize the water.  Now the chlorine is being used by ISIS for their chemical attacks.  All this while the UN continues to blame the Syrian Army and Government.  They try every way to blame the Syrian Government.  Either they claim it is the Syrian Government using chlorine against innocent people or they are failing to prevent it getting into the hands of ISIS.  

It is thanks to ISIS [not the Syrian Government] that Aleppo is thirsty!

The sad thing is, people who have been neighbours for 40 years or more now fight among themselves.   The Boxing Day Syndrome, when arguments often break out over minor things. Same over here, fighting over meagre water supplies. Water is coming little by little, with some dust and clay at the beginning. It doesn’t reach the higher storeys of buildings like it used to. We need a private pump for each house to do the job. But that needs power, and power/hydro/electricity comes only around 4 hours a day. People are depending on alternative solutions, like a small size generator that works on fuel (there has been a drastic fuel shortage in Aleppo for the last two years). The other solution is to register for a bigger generator size for the neighbourhood, with a specific number of  Amperes. We are registered for 6 Amperes, enough for the fridges, tv, fans, and lights. A dentist friend needs 16 Amperes for his clinic. That service gives us another 10-11 hours of power a day, and costs around $20 a week. We still have to suffer  9 hours without power.”

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