(Zaman Al Wasl)- About 80,000 Syrian refugees sheltering in Rukban camp at Jordan’s border have been suffering lack of drinking water and mounting health problems.
The main potable water tubes were cut off since June 15, such a mesery pushed the displaced people to walk 5 km (Three miles) to reach nearest water supply.
Activists said the maintenance works started this week to get back drinking water to the most abandoned Syrian refugee camp.
Last May, NBC News described the camp as a scrub land of hopelessness in a forgotten corner of the Middle East. ‘’This makeshift refugee camp offers a stark lesson to those seeking to de-escalate the Syrian civil war and establish secure areas for civilians who've been driven from their homes.’’
Syrians who left regime and ISIS-held territory found themselves stranded at Rukban when Jordan closed its entire border with the country last year. The country has also blocked much humanitarian assistance from getting into the camp.
Aid agencies have complained for months that they can't gain access the site to provide food and essential supplies. Coordinated by the U.N.’s World Food Program, a monthly delivery by a crane located in Jordanian territory makes up the bulk of what keeps men, women and children alive at the ever-growing camp.
According to UNHCR, some 659,000 Syrian refugees and around 63,000 Iraqis have officially registered in Jordan — a country of about 9 million people. Citing the most recent census, state-run media last year reported that at least 1.26 million people in Jordan were Syrians.
Now in its seventh year, the war in Syria has left an estimated 450,000 dead. Aid organizations believe that around half of Syria's population has been killed or forced to flee their homes in what is the world's worst humanitarian crisis since World War II.
Last year, an ISIS suicide bomber killed seven Jordanian soldiers at a military base located less than a mile away.
That resulted in Jordan preventing all but a handful of refugees from crossing its borders — and declared the area a "closed military zone." (With NBC News)
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