Food and water supplies in Syrian towns running critically low, UN says

Record ID: 164937

  • Title: Food and water supplies in Syrian towns running critically low, UN says
  • Date: 19th January 2017
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JANUARY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS BUILDING U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA'S SPECIAL ADVISER, JAN EGELAND, DURING NEWS BRIEFING (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA'S SPECIAL ADVISER, JAN EGELAND, SAYING: "There is food for a few weeks, we heard today, maybe it was for half of the population for up to a month. That was how they counted - World Food Programme (WFP) - so it is absolutely critical, the situation. Even worse today, is that the one hospital that was really treating wounded had to be also moved because it came into direct fire." CAMERAMAN (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA'S SPECIAL ADVISER, JAN EGELAND, SAYING: "Thousands of families have been displaced from Wadi Barada, there are fierce fighting, many civilians killed, and it also holds the water supply to Damascus. So now, for nearly a month, 27 days today, 5.5 million people have been without their normal water supply in Damascus." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA'S SPECIAL ADVISER, JAN EGELAND, SAYING: "We now end up in this complete hopeless bureaucratic quagmire of having to seek facilitation letters, permits, security permits, having the governors' office to agree on access, the security forces, the security committees, the armed actors, including the armed opposition groups. They all need to give us access and they are routinely doing what they can, all of them it seems, to avoid us helping women, children, wounded on the other side." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA'S SPECIAL ADVISER JAN EGELAND SAYING: "I do, however, take it for granted that Russia, Turkey, Iran, will understand the immense responsibility they take upon themselves now of guarantors of an agreement of another process, to enable a new beginning for the civilian population of Syria. The way it is now, it cannot continue." UNITED NATIONS BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 2nd February 2017 14:36
  • Keywords: Deir Al-Zor Damascus aid water fod siege humanitarian
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,International/National Security
  • Reuters ID: LVA0015ZQZT53
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Despite a nationwide "cessation of hostilities", food and water supplies are in "critical" levels in the Syrian towns of Deir al-Zor and Damascus, the U.N. warned on Thursday (January 19), while aid convoys are still being blocked.
    After ISIS launched an offensive against the desert eastern town of Deir al-Zor, capturing the drop zone where the World Food Programme used to deliver food by helicopter, about 93,000 civilians had been totally cut off since Sunday (January 15).
    "There is food for a few weeks, we heard today, maybe it was for half of the population for up to a month. That was how they counted - World Food Programme (WFP) - so it is absolutely critical, the situation. Even worse today, is that the one hospital that was really treating wounded had to be also moved because it came into direct fire," the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria's humanitarian affairs advisor Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva.
    Clashes between the Syrian army and rebels are still ongoing in the Wadi Barada valley near Damascus, where a pumping station that supplies most of the capital's water has not yet been repaired.
    "Thousands of families have been displaced from Wadi Barada, there are fierce fighting, many civilians killed, and it also holds the water supply to Damascus. So now, for nearly a month, 27 days today, 5.5 million people have been without their normal water supply in Damascus," Egeland said.
    The towns of Madaya and al-Zabadani, besieged by Hezbollah, and al-Foua and Kefraya, under armed opposition groups, were now a "disaster" area where people were dying because of lack of medical attention, Egeland said.
    Despite the cessation of hostilities, aid convoys are still being blocked both by the regime and opposition groups.
    Egeland said December and January have been the worst months for aid delivery since the humanitarian task force existed, with all warring sides routinely halting aid flows while civilians are facing the fifth winter in wartime.
    "We now end up in this complete hopeless bureaucratic quagmire of having to seek facilitation letters, permits, security permits, having the governors' office to agree on access, the security forces, the security committees, the armed actors, including the armed opposition groups. They all need to give us access and they are routinely doing what they can, all of them it seems, to avoid us helping women, children, wounded on the other side," Egeland said.
    Talks in Astana later this month convened by Russia, Turkey and Iran will have a go at reconciling warring sides.
    "I do, however, take it for granted that Russia, Turkey, Iran, will understand the immense responsibility they take upon themselves now of guarantors of an agreement of another process, to enable a new beginning for the civilian population of Syria. The way it is now, it cannot continue," Egeland said.
    U.N. Syria Envoy Staffan de Mistura has been invited to the peace talks and will lead the U.N. team in the Kazakh capital. The talks are expected to begin on Jan. 23.
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