Damascus residents boycott bills

Most Syrian citizens stopped paying electricity and water bills 18 months ago, Syrian opposition members told Arabstoday. “We will not pay for the bullets that kill us” they added. But the main reason is that many Syrian people no longer have any source of income. Syrian state institutions confirmed that there are a lot of losses. In Damascus alone over 3 billion lira for water is owed and 500 million for electricity. Mohammed, who has three children and lives in Damascus, told Arabstoday he does not pay because he is against the Syrian regime. “I realised that I pay the price of the bullets and shells heaped upon us, so I decided not to pay.” Khadija, agreed with Mohammed saying “I stopped buying my stuff from the state institutions, and started to buy it from the private sector even if it is expensive. I do not want to contribute money to support a system that destroys, kills, burns and steals.” However pro-regime supporter Maram said that she had stopped paying bills due to dried up avenues of income because of the on-going violence. Ali told Arabstoday that “even if I wanted to pay my bills it’s impossible to do it… my salary and the salary of my wife is not even enough to buy food and clothes as the value of the Syrian lira has fallen dramatically.”   Arabstoday questioned over 1,000 Damascus residents. The results show that more than 90 percent do not pay their bills.