Baladi News – Hama (Shahoud Jadou)
Dozens of residents in al-Salamiya demonstrated on Saturday afternoon in one of the city squares to protest against the lack of potable water.
The demonstration was called for previously on “patriotic pages” on social media, which mobilized people to gather before the water establishment in order to exert pressure on competent authorities to find a solution to the water problem that started to worry the residents.
Some websites posted images of what was called “the patriotic demonstration” showing dozens of young people gathering and holding banners to demand competent authorities to find a radical solution to the problem of water in the city.
In the same context, Abu al-Ward al-Salamoni, one of the residents, told Baladi News that the water problem in the city is eternal, because ground waters are salty, sulfuric and unpotable. He also indicated that drinking water had been pumped from al-Qantara station west from the city. However, the regime thugs stopped the power supply to the station after liberating it by the rebels. Regarding the real reason of cutting off the water supply, al-Salamoni said that this procedure was synchronized with the beginning of an “Ismaili” movements after Alawite thugs killed three Ismaili young men because of a quarrel. The speaker pointed out that this procedure was deliberate to subjugate the city and make it busy with the daily issues of food and potable water.
Director of al-Salamiya water utility, engineer Shadi Shahin, submitted his resignation under pressures from Salama family with the arrangements for demonstration several days ago. Instead, engineer Thaer Zidan was designated and a contract with Aga Khan Foundation to bring water from al-Shumariyah through water tankers was terminated. These procedures were shown as a fake scenario plotted by the water utility and the thugs leaders to deceive people into believing that the problem is due to the corruption of certain figures and eliminate any suspicions about Salama and Dardar families responsible for cutting of power supply to al-Qantara station as well as the previous murder against the three young men several weeks ago.