Farmers fear of damage to crops if cut al-Belikh river

GIRE SIPI /TURKEY AL_KALT

The water of al-Belikh River, which irrigates thousands of hectares of agricultural land in North Syria on its banks, was cut for the first time after the Turkish state deliberately built projects on the river to allocate the largest amount of river water to agricultural land on the Turkish side.

Al-Belikh River is the second most important river in Syria after the Euphrates, and is dependent on the farmers in the northern and eastern and al-Raqqa  countryside ,(Giresipi/ Tel-Abyed) city and entirecountryside.

One of the factors that led to the interruption of the river is the establishment of the Turkish state for several projects to reserve water at the present time, and allocated to watering plantations on the Turkish side.

Every spring, the peak of the river's flood is marked by the melting of snow on Armenia's plateau, which is its most important resource, but the lack of rain this year has caused the scarcity of its water tributaries.

The length of the river in North Syria is about 110 km. It starts from Turkey and enters Syria from the Ein al-Arous area, three kilometers south of (Tel-Abyad /Gire sipi).

Farmers on the banks of the river al-Belikh are dependent on the river, and the interruption has led to fears of damage to the winter season if water continues to break.

Hawar news agency (ANHA) interviewed with framers Issa al-Hamoud and Mohammed al-Iskar "We are planting our agricultural seasons on al-Belikh River, where we are dragging water from it by pulling it with diesel engines. Now the season needs to be watered because the winter is over, and we will begin to water our agricultural crops at this time and the winter crop still needs twice the irrigation to complete the maturity, but the water was cut off, "they added, saying al- Balikh river has not experienced a break since long time ago.

(T/S)

ANHA