![Iraqi forces patrol on the street in the Zahra neighbourhood of Mosul, Iraq on November 16, 2016 as the operation to liberate Mosul from Daesh terrorists continue [Hemn Baban / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20161116_2_20176145_16095983-e1479562035925.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Water supplies to about 650,000 residents of the Iraqi city of Mosul have been cut off after a pipeline was hit during fighting between the Iraqi army and the Daesh militants, a local Iraqi official said on Tuesday.
“The maintenance team cannot reach the pipeline because it lies in an area being fought over”, Hussam Al-Abar, a member of Mosul’s Nineveh provincial council, told Reuters in one of the 15 districts and suburbs of the city where running water halted.
“There is a big shortage of drinking water, we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe”, Abar added.
He noted that authorities were sending some 70-tank water trucks a day to areas controlled by the army, but Daesh had attacked some of the trucks.
“Basic services such as water, electricity, health, food are non-existent”, he said standing in an eastern suburb while mortars fired inside the city.