Turkey’s water seizure kills thousands of fish in Khabur
TEL TAMR, Syria (North Press) – As Turkey continues to withhold water from the Khabur River, thousands of fish in the river at the town of Tel Tamr in northern Hasakah, northeastern Syria, have died due to its near-total depletion.
Khalid Maamad, an official in the Agriculture and Irrigation Directorate in Tel Tamr, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), said, “Previously, when the river water flowed naturally, tens of thousands of fish used to live in the Khabur River. This benefited many fishermen who depended on them for their livelihood.”
“After Turkey cut off the river’s water, the fish wealth has been greatly affected recently, especially in the last few days. We have recorded the death of thousands of fish in the river due to its depletion, and the formation of pools filled with dirt and puddles, which affected the life of the fish and caused the death of this huge number of them,” he said.
The water level of the Euphrates River has dropped by five meters recently due to Turkey’s seizure of the river’s water. The flow rate has been limited to 200 cubic meters per second, which is a serious breach of the 1987 water-sharing agreement signed with Syria and Iraq under the United Nations’ supervision.
The 1987 agreement stipulates Turkey’s permanent commitment to pumping 500 cubic meters of water per second from the Euphrates River towards Syria.