Statement by Yacoub El Hillo (pictured), Humanitarian Coordinator in Libya, on the disruption of water and electricity supply
More than two million people, including 600,000 children, who live in Tripoli and surrounding towns and cities, are suffering from water cuts for almost a week now.
The water supply, part of the Great Man-Made River, was disrupted by a group in the Shwerif area as a pressure tactic to secure the release of family members.
All mediation efforts until now do not seem to have produced a resolution to the dispute while millions of Libyans remain deprived of water.
Water should never be used as a pressure card nor as a weapon of war. It is particularly reprehensible to deliberately cut off water supplies from people anywhere in Libya.
This deplorable water cut is coinciding with a serious power outage in the western region, also imposed as a result of another individual dispute.
At this moment when Libya is fighting the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to water and electricity is more than ever lifesaving, and such individual acts to collectively punish millions of innocent people are abhorrent and must stop immediately.
(Source: UN)
