(task) Syria bombings leave 1.75 million without running water in Aleppo | World news | The Guardian

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Severity Level 6 Crisis High Severity Social Crisis Water Food War and Terrorism

> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/syrian-military-bombardment-of-aleppo-enters-third-day <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/syrian-military-bombardment-of-aleppo-enters-third-day>
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> Syria bombings leave 1.75 million without running water in Aleppo
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> Heavy bombardment of the rebel-held eastern area of Aleppo has left about 1.75 million people without running water, the United Nations has said.
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> Intense attacks on Friday prevented repairs to the city’s damaged Bab al-Nayrab pumping station, which supplies water to 250,000 people in the eastern parts of the city, according to the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef.
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> In retaliation, the nearby Suleiman al-Halabi station, which pumps water to 1.5 million people in the west of Aleppo, was switched off, it said.
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> “Nearly 2 million people in Aleppo are once again with no running water through the public network,” said Hanaa Singer, a Unicef representative in Syria <https://www.theguardian.com/world/syria>. “Depriving children of water puts them at risk of catastrophic outbreaks of waterborne diseases and adds to the suffering, fear and horror that children in Aleppo live through every day.
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> “In the eastern part of Aleppo, the population will have to resort to highly contaminated well water. It is critical for children’s survival that all parties to the conflict stop attacks on water infrastructure, provide access to assess and repair damage to Bab al-Nayrab station, and switch the water back on at the Suleiman al-Halabi station.”
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> People inspect a water-filled hole at the site of an airstrike on the rebel-held Tariq al-Bab neighbourhood of Aleppo. Photograph: Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters
> At least 25 people were killed on Saturday as the Syrian military continued its offensive on opposition-held areas in its attempt to retake control of the entire city, according to rebel sources.
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> The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said it had documented 47 deaths on Friday, including five children.
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> Residents of rebel-held eastern Aleppo said the area had been subjected to the most ferocious bombardment of the war in the latest offensive.
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> “Unfortunately it continues. There are planes in the sky now,” said Ammar al-Selmo, the head of the Syrian Civil Defence in the area.
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> The attackers appeared to be using ordnance more destructive than anything previously used against the area, and residents said many buildings had been destroyed.
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> “They are using weapons that appear to be specifically for [bringing down] buildings,” a senior official in an Aleppo-based rebel faction, the Levant Front, told Reuters. “Most of the victims are under the rubble because more than half the civil defence has been forced out of service.”
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> Girl pulled from rubble after airstrike in Aleppo <https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2016/sep/23/girl-airstrike-aleppo-syria-russia-video>
> The 250,000 residents left in eastern Aleppo have been under near-continuous siege since government troops encircled the area in mid-July.
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> Syrian government forces took control of the Handarat camp in a rebel-held area north of Aleppo on Saturday, the observatory said.
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> The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Saturday that reviving the ceasefire in Syria depended on all sides. “One can speak about the ceasefire revival only on the collective basis,” he told Russian television.
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> Russia and the US agreed to a ceasefire on 9 September, but the truce effectively collapsed after a week when an aid convoy was attacked, killing about 20 people..
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> The Syrian army said it was targeting rebel positions in the city, and denied hitting civilians.
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> On Saturday morning the streets of Aleppo were nearly empty, with just a few residents out looking for bread.