Syria fighting threatens deal to fix damaged Damascus water source

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army and the allied Lebanese militia Hezbollah had made some gains against rebels in the Wadi Barada area. Heavy fighting reached the outskirts of the Ain al-Fija town, where the water springs are located, the British-based war monitor reported. 

Artillery shelling by government forces killed seven people and wounded several others in the nearby Deir Qanoun village, it said. Wadi Barada, a mountainous valley northwest of Damascus, has become a major battlefront in the Syrian war, and the damage to the pumping station has caused severe water shortages in the capital- since the beginning of the year. 

The governor of the Damascus Countryside province said on Friday that engineers had entered Ain al-Fija to repair the pumping station, as part of a wider agreement that included the departure of some rebels from Wadi Barada and a settlement with others who would remain there. But the plan was derailed on Saturday evening, after armed men killed the head of a negotiation team who was overseeing the agreement and repairs, the Observatory said. 

A military media unit run by Hezbollah said the army captured some positions overlooking Ain al-Fija on Saturday, after taking two nearby villages in recent days and edging closer towards the water facility. 

The water spring was knocked out of service in late December. The United Nations has said it was damaged because “infrastructure was deliberately targeted”, without saying who was responsible, leaving four million people in Damascus without safe drinking water supplies. The UN warned the shortages could lead to waterborne disease outbreaks.