Reference :
V-P-SY-E-00305
Date :
18/07/2013
Caption :
Sweida, camp for displaced persons. ICRC engineers speak to displaced people at a camp where the ICRC is working to improve water supply and sanitation.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
ICRC website, Operational Update, 26/08/2013
Syria: Breakdown of services increases suffering
In violence-stricken areas, the breakdown of essential services is adding to the woes of hundreds of thousands of people.
"This is not a life worth living," said Bilal, a resident of Rural Damascus. "Together with dozens of other families, we're crowded into an unfinished building shell without electricity or water. Even if the shelling around us were to stop, there would still be the heat, the flies buzzing over our heads and the stench of the garbage outside."
Areas plagued by heavy fighting, including Rural Damascus, eastern parts of Aleppo and Deir Ezzor and the governorate of Raqqa, are enduring breakdowns of essential services such as the supply of electricity and water and the collection of garbage.
"Many water stations have been damaged and can no longer supply the communities that depend on them," said Jean-Marc Burri, in charge of the ICRC's water and sanitation activities in Syria. "Furthermore, waste management services, including the collection of garbage, have become almost non-existent in some areas where fighting has been taking place, or only continue to be performed through the efforts of the people living there."
"The failure to remove refuse for lengthy periods of time could have a serious impact on the well-being of entire communities," he said. "Piles of garbage are ideal breeding grounds for disease and parasites."
To help ward off any public health catastrophe, the ICRC launched a number of projects aimed at improving overall sanitary conditions. "We're trying to improve, as far as possible, the conditions in which people affected by the fighting have to live," said Mr Burri.
Thanks to the joint efforts of the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, garbage in Aleppo's Jisr Al-Haj area was collected and disposed of over the past couple of weeks. In addition, insecticides were sprayed in Aleppo and Idlib to help control parasites. Furthermore, ICRC engineers worked together with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and local water boards to carry out emergency repairs in areas of heavy fighting to ensure the availability of clean potable water.
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Original material :
digital
Resolution :
2592x1936
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
