Power outages continue to affect large parts of Syria’s majority Druze Suwayda Province in the south of the country amid deteriorating living and service conditions, according to a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The observatory reported that the Suwayda electricity transformation station went completely out of service on January 5 after a technical failure on a 66-kilovolt line caused by clashes in the area. As a result, electricity was cut to wide areas of Suwayda city, local sources told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At the same time, the city of Shahba and its surrounding countryside have been experiencing a total power outage for 18 days. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented on January 4 that electricity had already been cut for 15 days in several villages surrounding the village of Walgha, following an attack carried out by forces affiliated with the transitional government on the Atel area, which led to damage to the power line supplying those areas.
The continued outages have sparked public dissatisfaction due to the deterioration of basic services. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warned of serious humanitarian consequences resulting from the prolonged electricity cuts, particularly in light of harsh weather conditions and the decline of infrastructure, stressing the need to keep service facilities out of military conflicts to ensure the continued provision of basic services to civilians.