Turkish forces cuts off water supply in northeast Syria town

As coronavirus spreads across northeastern Syria, residents in Hasakeh have been caught up in spats between Turkish forces to the north and Syria's Kurds, viewed by Ankara as "terrorists".

In October last year, 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 Hasakeh.

Kurdish officials say Turkey is now using the water station to pressure the local authorities into giving them more electricity in areas Ankara seized from them.

While Turkey claims the station has merely been under maintenance, aid organisations have warned against using water as a political or military tool to the detriment of civilians.

In the city's narrow streets, women and children clutched empty jerrycans, waiting to fill them up from water deliveries, some from aid groups.

The Kurds say there have been eight interruptions to the supply of water from the station near the town of Ras al-Ain since last autumn.

The issue has sparked increasing concern at a time when confirmed coronavirus infections have risen to 362 cases including 25 deaths in Syria's Kurdish-held northeast, according to data provided by the semi-autonomous administration. Dozens of those cases are in Hasakeh.

In March, the United Nations warned one of the earlier water supply interruptions from Alouk was putting 460,000 people at risk in the Hasakeh area, as the pandemic spread worldwide.

The Kurds say the water has been cut off, and the hashtag "Thirst is strangling Hasakeh" has been trending online. Damascus on Monday accused Ankara of using water as a "weapon against Syrian civilians".

A Syrian girl rushes to fill up water from cisterns provided by humanitarian organisations during a water outage in Syria's northeastern city of Hasakeh

A displaced Syrian brings water back to their camp.