UN Condemns Airstrike on Water Plant in Syria’s Aleppo
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations (UN) slammed a recent airstrike on a water treatment plant in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, which cut water supplies to some 3.5 million people.
“In Syria, the rules of war, including those meant to protect vital civilian infrastructure, continue to be broken on a daily basis. The airstrike which reportedly hit al-Khafseh water treatment plant in…Aleppo last Thursday is a particularly alarming example,” said UNICEF Representative in Syria, Hanaa Singer in a statement, UN News Center reported on Tuesday.
Singer said that the water pumping operations at the facility, on which approximately 3.5 million people depend, have since been partially restored, but more than 1.4 million people in rural Aleppo continue to suffer interruptions to their supply.
She added that the al-Khafseh facility is one of the most important in Syria, producing an average of 18 million liters of drinking water daily and the damage of the plant has forced people to draw raw water from the Euphrates River, which is now the sole source of drinking water for four million people across Aleppo governorate.
Singer further stressed that the international humanitarian law protects civilian infrastructure and the right of civilians to access services.
Earlier, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the US-led coalition conducting airstrikes against purported positions of the Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri terrorists in Syria had bombed the water plant.
