From an Aleppo resident:  22/7/2015

“Water finally reached us today after 26 days without it.  It came in from the municipality but the pressure is so weak even with the pump working overtime we are only getting a trickle.  If we run out of fuel, the  water will stop again.

For the last 4 weeks we have been forced to buy water from the sellers at extortionate prices or try to get free water from local wells and springs.  Life became one long queue and a backbreaking exercise carrying the precious water back to our homes every day in the blazing heat.

Most of the young people have deserted Aleppo leaving the elderly, many of whom are showing signs of stress and are badly affected by the life in the city.

The city itself has shrunk to a fifth of its original size and the “safe” areas are overcrowded and full of the refugees from other areas that are under terrorist control.  The safe areas are mostly in the West.

I cant go to the old city, for example, because its a war zone and under the terrorist control.  This is the walled city.  At the centre is the citadel, located on Acropolis hill and this is the only area in the old city under SAA control because of its strategic elevated location.  Many priceless, ancient heritage sites have been destroyed by the terrorists.  The SAA is isolated and surrounded by terrorist nests..the only way supplies can be got to them is via helicopter or tanks.

Then in the rest of Aleppo, terrorists are embedded in several areas and quarters with “buffer zones” around them where people are sniped and shelled on a daily basis if they havent already left.  Those who stayed behind seem to just get used to life in these areas, or they just have managed to switch off somehow.”

Map taken from Le Monde. Their reporters are “embedded” with the “rebels” or the “FSA”.