Water reduction drains reservoir of Tishreen Lake in Syria’s Manbij
MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) – An official of Tishreen Dam in northern Syria said on Sunday that the reduction in water levels will drain the lake’s strategic reservoir and would eventually result in making the dam a useless one.
Since February 2020, Turkey has reduced the amount of water flown onto Syrian territories amid growing concerns of a humanitarian disaster.
Hamoud al-Hamadin, an official of the Tishreen Dam in Manbij countryside, east of Aleppo, said that the reduction in the water level of the lake has reached some 4.05 meters low.
“This big reduction will drain the strategic reservoir of the lake due to lack of water resources,” al-Hamadin told North Press.
By the strategic reservoir it is meant “The amount of water by which the dam operates naturally, when reduction reaches 4.05 meters, there remains nearly one meter high water by which the dam operates with minimum level.”
According to the agreement signed between Syria and Turkey in 1987, Syria was allocated 500 cubic meters per second, while now just 200 cubic meters flow, that is less than half of the defined allocated amount, according to al-Hamadin.
He added that the amount of water does not cover drinking irrigation and vaporization. There reservoir is always consumed in addition to attrition of generating electricity of the water reservoir in the lakes.
The Tishreen Dam, some 20 km in southeast of Manbij city is the second largest generating power station after the Euphrates Dam in Tabqa.
The official pointed out that if the remaining meter level of war continues to drain, the lake will then reach “zero level” by which the dam would no longer operate.
According to exploration instructions, the dam is principally based on storing water, and that increasing or decreasing water levels should not exceed 30 centimeters because it impinges upon the structure of the dam, according to al-Hamadin.