Water level in Syria’s Afrin drops putting crops, drinking supply at risk
AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – The water level in the Maydanki Dam in Sharran, a town in Afrin region, northwestern Syria, has dropped significantly in recent months, local sources told North Press on Thursday.
Residents expressed growing concern over the decline, warning it could severely affect agriculture and drinking water in the region.
Sources attributed the sharp decrease to the illegal and excessive use of river and dam waters, particularly for irrigating large crop areas. They added that the situation has been worsened by several dams constructed by Turkey along the watercourse feeding into Syrian territory following its occupation of Afrin.
Residents also fear that sediment accumulation inside the reservoir has reduced its effective storage capacity. The dam remains a critical source of drinking water for Afrin, and no emergency measures have been implemented to address the depletion.
Locals recalled that prior to Turkey’s occupation, irrigation practices were managed carefully, keeping the dam at stable levels despite previous manipulation of the river in late 2017. “Since Turkey’s occupation of Afrin, agricultural production has sharply declined due to reduced water availability,” one source said.
The Maydanki Dam was originally constructed in 1997 by the Syrian Ministry of Water Resources and officially opened in 2004. The dam was designed to store 64 million cubic meters of water, serving as the primary drinking water source for Afrin and Azaz, north of Aleppo.
Since 2012, the tributaries of the Afrin River, originating in Turkey, have gradually decreased in flow following the Turkish government’s construction of a dam within its borders. As a result, the water levels in Maydanki Lake steadily declined until the river’s tributaries were completely diverted to supply the newly built dam in Kilis, Turkey.
In 2021, the Afrin Activists Network, a local network that monitors violations in Afrin, released images showing Turkey’s construction of another dam on the Afrin River near Maydanki Lake in Sharran district. The group accused Turkey of diverting Afrin’s water supply by building infrastructure on the river’s Turkish side.
On June 11, 2021, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inaugurated the “Upper Afrin Dam” in Kilis via video conference. At the time, Turkey’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry stated that the dam, with a storage capacity of 38 million cubic meters, was intended to meet the drinking water and public utility needs of Kilis province.
By 2023, Turkey had opened the drainage gates of the Maydanki Dam to transfer water to the Reyhanlı Dam in southern Turkey, near Idlib. This action drastically reduced water levels in both Maydanki Lake and the Afrin River, raising serious concerns among farmers and residents about an impending environmental disaster.
One of the most affected areas is Jindires, where the Afrin River’s tributaries have completely dried up, particularly near the villages of Deir Ballout and al-Muhammadiyah, close to the Turkish border.