​​​​​​​For 30 months, Turkey continued to block Euphrates water from Syria without interruption

Although the theft of Syria's share of the Euphrates water began in 2017, this was happening intermittently, but since January 27, 2021, Turkey has started blocking water continuously and without interruption.

Since then, the authorities of the Turkish occupation state have released about 200 cubic meters of water per second, on average, instead of 500 cubic meters per second, which was stipulated in a protocol agreed between Turkey and Syria since 1987.

About 30 months after the start of seizing the Euphrates without interruption, the water level of the river is witnessing a significant decrease, and the lakes behind the three dams on the Euphrates River in Syria have lost many of their strategic reserves, the largest of which is the Euphrates Dam lake in Tabqa.

The Euphrates Dam lake holds 14.5 billion cubic meters of water, but it has recently lost 4 billion of its reserves due to the lack of water supply from Turkey, which is not sufficient to meet the region's water needs for drinking, irrigation and electric power generation.

Despite the repeated appeals of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria to international powers and the government of Damascus and Iraq to put pressure Turkey to force it to return and comply with international laws and not to encroach on Syria and Iraq's share of the Euphrates water, the governments of Damascus and Baghdad remained silent and left the field for Turkey to act as it pleased.

Recently, however, statements were issued by both sides, which spoke openly about this crisis, as Bashar al-Assad said during the Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’a al-Sudani’s visit to Syria, that: “Some neighboring countries have been directly involved in supporting terrorism, either for expansionist reasons or backward ideological reasons, in addition to the biggest challenge, which is the theft of Syria and Iraq’s share of the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and what this thing means in terms of thirst and hunger.”

For his part, the Iraqi Prime Minister said, "There are common challenges with Syria, including the challenge of water scarcity, and we must cooperate to ensure fair water shares."

The Iraqi government has previously revealed that the country's water reserves are at stake, and that water imports from Turkey, Syria and Iran are less than 70% of the previous share.

The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, witnesses on a daily basis hundreds of Iraqis demonstrate in front of the Turkish embassy, in protest against Turkey blocking the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and calling for a boycott of Turkish goods, and the need for the Iraqi government to act.

On June 25, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid held neighboring countries responsible for the water crisis afflicting his country. Rashid said, in a lecture he delivered on the water crisis during his visit to the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources, that "a group of points contributed to the emergence of the current water crisis, including climate change and the actions of neighboring countries, as well as water management in Iraq."

The last statement from the Iraqi side was on July 18, when the deputy head of the Parliamentary Agriculture and Water Committee, Hussein Mardan, said that Turkey had completely cut off water from Iraq.

Mardan said in a televised interview: "The Ministry of Resources does not have any ingredients to find solutions to the water crisis, and Iraq's water reservoir is constantly decreasing."

He pointed out that Turkey has not released water to Iraq since the beginning of this month, and has not responded to the al-Sudani negotiations and calls for the release of water.

He stressed, "Iraq's insistence on severing trade and economic relations with Turkey until the water is released and strict political decisions are taken against it."

T/ Satt.

ANHA