Drinking water has been cut for the third consecutive day in 18 villages in the Sohag province as result of a fracture in the main water pipeline that feeds the villages. The fact that the cut has been ongoing, without visible action being taken by the water company officials, has provoked the residents' wrath.
Residents resorted to artesian water turbines to get water. They also used canal water full of dead animals and waste to provide drink for the animals, as well as wash their laundry and household utensils.
People got progressively angrier as temperatures rose and the need for water increased.
After hundreds of complaints were made by the affected people to the main headquarters of the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater and its branch in Sohag, several vehicles loaded with drinking water arrived on the third day to cover the people's needs. The locals rushed to the trucks stationed on the main streets in the villages holding containers.
Meanwhile, Major General Mahmoud Nafei, head of the company in Sohag, denied that the water had been cut in 18 villages, only admitting that eight have been affected and that the reason behind the cut is a broken pipeline.
He added that it would need more time to empty the pipeline of water in order to fix it.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
