Maintenance stems clashes over Syrian capital water source
BEIRUT — Maintenance workers arrived in Syria’s rebel-held valley near Damascus Friday to fix the water facility there, signalling an end to the violent standoff that has dried out the capital for weeks and threatened a fragile cease-fire, activists and the government said.
For days, negotiations stalled, failing to restore the water flow to the capital restricted since Dec. 22 and to end a government offensive there to uproot rebels in control of the area for years. The U.N. says the capital has suffered a water shortage that has affected nearly 5.5 million residents. The fighting has trapped nearly 100,000 residents of the opposition-held valley.
A cease-fire that went into effect on Dec. 30 was threatened by the ongoing violence. Rebel groups threatened to withdraw from planned talks because of the violations.
By late Friday afternoon, however, the opposition Wadi Barada Media Center posted pictures of maintenance equipment arriving in the water-rich Barada Valley. The local governor told Syrian state TV a deal had been reached, and water would soon flow back into Damascus. He said it could resume as early as Saturday.