RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Ali al-Khalidi, a shepherd in the city of Raqqa, north Syria, crosses the Euphrates River with his sheep to reach the river islands in the middle of the river after Turkey reduced the amount of water flowing towards the Syrian territories amid health, agricultural, and environmental warnings and popular discontent.
Sheep in the water
The scene of sheep crossing the Euphrates looks unfamiliar to most people living near the river. However, this is what the river has become after its riverbed turned into narrow streams due to the lack of flow.
Negative effects of the decline of the Euphrates River in Raqqa and its countryside have increased after a remarkable decline in the amount of the water, where it reached 181 m³ per second, according to the Energy Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Al-Khalidi said he has never reached the river islands where he now grazes his sheep, and despite the benefit of reaching the grassy areas in the middle of the water, he says the view of the river “makes the heart sick.”
He added that the scene of the sheep crossing the river has become usual despite its strangeness, as it was impossible to see it earlier.
Earlier, the depth of the Euphrates River south of Raqqa reached more than 30 meters in some places before the Turkish seizure of the water, which was hard to cross without boats.
Swimming and drinking risks
Muhammad Aboud and others in Raqqa fear jumping from the bridge (about 10 meters) as they used to every week during the summer.
“We used to jump without fearing the risks of hitting the bottom or hard materials, but now we are afraid due to the shallow water,” Aboud said.
“The view of the receding water does not draw us to swim; that water that the sheep cross,” he added.
This situation increased health risks to the swimmers and the residents, as towns and cities of the Euphrates basin in Syria depend on the Euphrates water for drinking through stations on the banks of the river pumping water.
Residents of Raqqa and other areas that depend on the Euphrates water noticed a change in the water color and the increase in the percentage of impurities that contaminate the drinking water.
Salih al-Yusef, a father of three, said that one of his children had enteritis accompanied by severe diarrhea, which led him to stay in the Euphrates Hospital in Raqqa for several days after his health situation deteriorated.
He added that the pediatrician who supervised his child’s situation said that the main reason for his deteriorating health condition is unsafe drinking water, and “he advised me to boil water or drink mineral water.”
Warnings unheeded
Despite the launch of several official and popular warnings from northeast Syria regarding the seriousness of the health and environmental disaster that the region awaits, Turkey continues to seize the Euphrates water.
In May, co-chair of the Health Committee of Raqqa’s Civil Council Zeina al-Hassan warned of the danger of contaminated water to the health of residents of the areas that depend on the river to secure drinking water.
“The edges of the Euphrates have turned into swamps as a result of receding water, which constitutes a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and sand flies. Consequently, this will lead to the emergence of leishmaniasis in the coming period,” she told North Press earlier.
“The low level of the Euphrates water raised the water turbidity rate to the fourth degree (NTU4), officials at the central laboratory of the main drinking water station in Raqqa, said late in May.
“The drop in the level of the Euphrates River during the past months had a negative impact on the quality of drinking water being drawn from the river,” said Duha Ali, a specialist in the Central Laboratory.
Turkey has been seizing the Euphrates water from Syria and Iraq since mid-February, amid regional and global warnings of a health and agricultural disaster in the region.
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 an 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 should be no less than 500 m³ per second on average.