Mohamed al-Zarqawi, 85, sits in front of his simple home in the village of Al-Souda, Daqahlia, waiting for his son to come back with a jerrycan of fresh water that he had to go the city center to fill.
“My son has to travel 5 km to buy a jerrycan because we have had no water since February,” he says.
His son says he cannot go after sunset because he would be attacked by thugs. “I must leave early in the morning,” he says.
This is the situation in the five villages of Al-Souda, Al-Sharif, Tobar, Al-Arab and Al-Adawla, where 20,000 inhabitants live.
“The water comes only in December and January,” says Ahmed Ezz Eddin. “Other than that, we buy a jerrycan for three pounds. Some take water directly from the canal and boil it to wash with.”
“We got scabies from the canal water,” says Fetna Rizq. “Boiling it does not kill the microbes.”
Samir al-Imam says there was a pipeline that has been supplying the village with water since 1970, but someone squatted on the land where the line was laid and cut off the water supply.
Mohamed Farid says the villagers are willing to contribute to the cost of a new line, but the government does not want to have problems with the squatter.
Al-Masry Al-Youm was unable to contact Ezzat al-Sayyad, the head of the local branch of the National Authority for Drinking Water. An official source at the company blamed it for the shortage because it never completed the new drinking water station that was supposed to open in 2007.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
