Water cut-off by Turkey causes crises in northeast Syria, Dams Management
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, member of the General Management of the Dams in northeast Syria, Muhammad Tarboush, said that Turkey’s continued water cut-off causes economic crises in light of the collapse of the Syrian pound.
“The majority of the population of northeastern Syria primarily depends on agriculture, benefiting from the water of the Euphrates River, which is being held by Turkey for political reasons,” Tarboush added.
Tarboush pointed out that they started generating power for 8 hours only due to lack of water level, and “in case the water level continues to decrease, we will have to reduce the hours to six.”
“After the water level decreased, only 30% of the power supply was left, he noted.
He stated that the residents of Manbij, Kobani, Tabqa and Raqqa regions, in addition to Aleppo, are supplied with drinking water from the Euphrates River, so that the low level will cause water pollution and will affect public health and cause disease.
The water supply in the Euphrates River now, reaches 200 m³, while in the previous days, it was 800 m³, he further explained.
Each turbine in Tishrin Dam needs 400 m³ of water per second to supply power regularly, according to Tarboush.
The water level in the Euphrates Dam has decreased in the recent period due to the water cut by Turkey, as it has reached its lowest levels within a year.
Before Turkey’s cut-off, the percentage of the water stored in the Euphrates Lake was 304 m³, but it is 301,64 m³, which means that the level decreased about 2,36 m³.
While the water level of Tishrin Dam was 325 m³, but now it is 320.80 m³, which means that the level decreased about 5.2 m³, as Tarboush indicated.
Turkey keeps water in six dams, the largest of which is Ataturk Dam and the second largest in the Middle East, with a storage capacity of 48 billion m³, violating by that the international agreement.
According to the agreement signed between Syria and Turkey in 1987 related to the Euphrates River, Syria’s share of water coming from Turkey, is 500 m³ per second.