Official Of Syria’s AANES Warns Of Disaster Due To Euphrates Water Drop
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Hind al-Ali, co-chair of the Executive Council of the Democratic Civil Administration of Tabqa, called on Damascus and Baghdad on Saturday to move to activate the Euphrates River Agreement with Turkey, warning of a humanitarian catastrophe as the river level drops.
“Reducing the water of the Euphrates River towards Syria is one of Turkey’s special means of war,” she said on the official website of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
“Both Syria and Iraq have to act before a humanitarian catastrophe occurs. They have to demand their shares of the Euphrates water,” she said.
Al-Ali warned that the continuation of the drop in river’s level further, would lead to a humanitarian disaster in northeast Syria.
Since the beginning of last April, it has been observed that the river level has decreased significantly, reaching less than 200 cubic meters per second.
Turkey currently stores water in five dams on the Euphrates River, the largest of which is Ataturk Dam with a storage capacity of 48 billion m³.
This storage capacity violates an international agreement signed with Syria in 1987 which stated that Syria’s share of water coming from Turkey should be no less than 500 m³ per second on average. While the water supply in the Euphrates River is now limited to less than 200 cubic meters, according to the General Management of Dams in northeast Syria.
“Tishreen Dam is out of service now. We have begun to consume the dam’s reserve stock, which is only used for covering basic needs, such as drinking water and irrigation,” she added.
Turkey is exacerbating the economic crisis in the region, as most of the region’s population depends on agriculture, which in turn depends on the Euphrates River, she added.
Iraqi parliament’s First Deputy Speaker Hakim al-Zamili threatened Thursday to enact a law criminalizing economic and commercial dealings with both Iran and Turkey if they continue to cut Iraq’s share of water resources.
The Iraqi official explained that Turkey started to cut off water supplies to Iraq by 80 percent, and Iran completely cut off the water flowing to Iraqi cities.