The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria said Turkey and its Sunni rebel allies halted service at the Alok pumping station in the Turkish-occupied town of Ras al-Ain today, putting efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the war-ravaged region at risk. Hawar news quoted officials from the autonomous administration’s water authority as saying, “The Turkish occupation and its mercenaries have cut off the water to al-Hasakah city from Alok station for the sixth time consecutively since its occupation of Serekaniye,” using the Kurdish name for the border town that was taken over by Turkish forces in October. 

Sources from two Western non-governmental organizations operating in the area confirmed that the water had been turned off this morning. They said the water authority had sent out an emergency alert asking households to manage water consumption in view of the cut.

The supply reportedly resumed but well under full capacity with only two of the five pumps currently operational at the station turned on, the sources speaking not for attribution told Al-Monitor.

The Alok facility supplies potable water to more than 460,000 people in al-Hasakah governorate. They include hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Syrians as well as Islamic State captives and their families — more than half are infants and children — who are being held in overcrowded and under-resourced prisons and camps. Riots have broken out in two facilities over the past month over poor conditions.