Ali al-Wahab’s daily commutes are no longer just about driving his taxi to transport passengers; the water shortage in al-Hasakah has forced him to dedicate part of his daily taxi rounds to search for water.

Since the beginning of summer, the situation has worsened with the continuing scarcity and interruption of water supplies in al-Hasakah neighborhoods, amidst the lack of effective solutions from the concerned authorities to resolve the water crisis.

Losing work to gain water

Ali al-Wahab (46 years old) strives to balance his time between working as a taxi driver and chasing water tankers from one neighborhood to another in al-Hasakah. He told Enab Baladi that the “journey of torment” begins every day in search of both a livelihood and the essential drop of water for the life of his family of four.

Al-Wahab works all day as a taxi driver and receives a certain percentage from the car owner. However, the water shortage has made him spend most of his earnings on filling his water tank (1000 liters), which is only enough for his family for three or four days, even with economizing its use.

The situation becomes more difficult when al-Wahab’s search for water conflicts with his taxi job, often leading to arguments with the car owner about prioritizing the taxi work over searching for water.

Along with al-Wahab, there are hundreds of families observed by Enab Baladi in various neighborhoods of al-Hasakah who are still suffering from the scarcity and high prices of water. Residents line up at the tanks spread throughout the neighborhoods and main streets of al-Hasakah to get a chance to fill their water.

A water tank for a hundred thousand pounds

Al-Hasakah residents complain about the high prices of water tankers. The price of filling a tank has reached 30,000 Syrian pounds (2 dollars), and during peak times and special occasions, the cost of the tank can go up to 100,000 pounds (7 dollars).

Water tanker owners in al-Hasakah justified the high prices of filling by the increase in fuel costs. Mohammed al-Rawi (35 years old), a water tanker owner, told Enab Baladi that there is no real support for the tanker owners for diesel fuel.

Al-Rawi added that tanker owners are forced to raise the prices of filling the tank because they buy the fuel at their own expense at 5,000 Syrian pounds per liter of diesel.

The increase in water prices by tanker owners is not just due to the high fuel costs, but also because they spend a long time filling the tankers due to the increased pressure on the sources.

Al-Rawi mentioned that it is possible to fill the tanker three or four times a day if there is not a large number of tankers at the source. But most of the time, the tank can only be filled twice or even once a day because of the scarcity of sources and the breakdown of some, with lines of tankers waiting.

Absent solutions

Despite repeated appeals from al-Hasakah residents to solve the water problem, their calls have not been answered. Tarek al-Juwair (41 years old) from the Tal Hajar neighborhood in al-Hasakah said that despite all the proposed solutions, which “we read about only on social media pages”, the water scarcity problem has not been resolved, and residents are still suffering from it.

Al-Juwair told Enab Baladi that water tanker owners do not respond to their repeated calls to fill their tanks, and when they do, they exploit the situation and ask for high prices.

Amidst the water scarcity, residents fear the unknown water sources that tanker owners fill from. Nonetheless, they are forced to use it due to the lack of alternatives, according to al-Juwair.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) had announced several projects to secure the necessary water for al-Hasakah city, estimating more than 130 million cubic meters daily, such as drilling wells in the Hama area, which later dried up, starting a project to drill 20 wells in rural Amuda, and a project to pipeline water to al-Hasakah over a distance of 62 kilometers at a cost of 18 million dollars. However, these projects have not yet been implemented.

The regime, on its part, only distributed water tanks and deployed desalination stations supervised by the Syrian Red Crescent in its controlled areas in al-Hasakah, filling them with tankers. However, as observed by Enab Baladi, these measures are insufficient.

Comments on the Nasaem al-Hasakah group on Facebook mentioned going to the desalination stations deployed by the Red Crescent in al-Thawra Park, al-Waha Park, Meridien, and between the bridges in al-Hasakah, but they were all out of order or empty, and most people returned home without water.