23 months of blocking Euphrates water in row

The Turkish occupation authorities have continued to block the water of the Euphrates River for 32 consecutive months, which has led to a decline in the river’s water level and its receding from vast areas of land. As a result, the lakes formed behind the dams in North and East Syria have lost up to 85 percent of their strategic reserve.

Engineer Hammoud al-Hamadin, director of the Rojava (Tishreen) Dam, said in an interview with ANHA's agency, “The reality of the Euphrates River that we are currently experiencing, and which has continued for more than 30 continuous months, is tragic. We have reached the bottom of the storage lakes completely, as the lakes’ entire stock has been depleted.”

Al-Hamadin added: “The storage level of the Euphrates Dam Lake is 304 meters above sea level, while it has currently reached 297, meaning a drop of more than 6 metres. This means that everything we call the dam’s operational lake has been completely depleted.”

The same applies to the Tishreen Dam Lake, which has depleted about 85 percent of its reserves, according to al-Hamadin.

Engineer Hammoud al-Hamadin points out that “the General Administration of Dams and the Energy Office have taken a set of measures, operating programs and water rationalization to limit water depletion for any secondary matters and focus on the first basic matter, which is drinking water, secondly irrigation water and thirdly electrical energy. Therefore, taking a specific level to operate Euphrates Dam is considered the zero level, so that we do not reach the dead level and do not have to stop the dam as happened previously, and the amount of water allocated for drinking is threatened. But due to the continuous decrease, we broke this rule and went below the level that we agreed upon, which is the zero point, and thus we are moving towards the dead level, which means stop the dam completely.

Al-Hamadin explained, “The imports from the Turkish side are fluctuating and not stable or stable, ranging between 200-250 cubic meters per second, and on some days we saw the imports reach less than 200 cubic meters per second. This import is less than half of the agreed upon quantity and is not it replaces irrigation, drinking, and evaporation water only, as all the generation water is drained from the lake reserves, which have become scarce, and the lake’s reservoir has become at a minimum, so that the very large bodies of water with enormous areas and volumes in the Tishreen Dam Lake and the Euphrates have completely dried up, thus transforming the river into operational, storage, and strategic lakes that provide water for irrigation, drinking, and generation, which constitutes water and food security for the region, has completely receded, turning into water swamps, and the great Euphrates River has turned into simple streams, especially since the Tishreen Dam has been stopped for 18 continuous hours.”

He said at the conclusion of his speech, "We are entering the winter season. The tiring and exhausting summer season has almost ended, during which all citizens felt the effects of the scarcity of drinking water and irrigation, the pandemics and diseases that spread through the swamps, which have become a suitable environment for the proliferation of these diseases and epidemics. We hope that the Turkish side will feel with the size of the tragedy we are experiencing, the water supply will be restored according to the signed understandings, so that the river can return to the lifeline of the region as it was and avoid the major disasters that could occur if the winter continues in this manner.”

T/ Satt.

ANHA