Turkey to supply electricity, water to Jarablus by Eid al-Adha next week

ANKARA/GAZİANTEP

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Turkey hopes to make electricity and water available to residents in Jarablus in northern Syria by the Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) holiday next week, according to officials.

“We have cleared Jarablus of terrorists. Now our aim is to return life to normal. We hope to offer electricity to Jarablus by the upcoming [Eid al-Adha] holiday,” Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said in a tweeted comment on Sept. 8. 

The mayor of the southeastern province of Gaziantep, Fatma Şahin, said her Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality has also been working to provide clean water to Jarablus before Eid al-Adha. 

“Our technical teams have examined the water sources in Jarablus and we have seen that there is water in four separate wells. The water will be stored and analyzed over the next few days. We hope clean water will be provided to Jarablus ahead of Eid al-Adha. As the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, we have mobilized our full support,” Şahin said, as quoted by Doğan News Agency. 

The municipality has also started a street cleaning campaign in Jarablus and is preparing to pave the roads with asphalt, according to officials. 

Meanwhile, the power distribution company in the region started its work to provide electricity from the Karkamış district of Gaziantep province to Jarablus last week. Turkey is now building a 3-km underground power line from Karkamış to Jarablus, following the recent Turkey-supported push by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to retake Jarablus from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

While private Turkish companies provided over 2 billion kilowatts/hour of electricity to neighboring Syria over a 15-month period, Turkey stopped supplying electricity to the area in October 2012 as the civil war spread throughout the country.