Water Again Flowing to Tripoli’s Taps

The water supply to the Libyan capital of Tripoli has been restored after a two-day interruption in service. The company that supplies water to the city of some 2.5 million blamed an unnamed armed group for having taken over a key pumping station some 250 miles to the south. The internationally recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj initially blamed the shutdown on renegade general Khalifa Haftar, whose eastern-based forces have been at the gates of Tripoli for several weeks in an attempt to wrest control of the capital from Sarraj and his loyalists. Haftar denies that he or his Libyan National Army rebels were involved; to the contrary, he says it was the LNA that restored the station’s pumping activity. Tripoli’s infrastructure includes water storage facilities that kept faucets running during the shutdown, but supplies were seen as getting low. Hundreds have been killed in the battle for Tripoli while tens of thousands have been made homeless since the latest fighting began in early April.