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Assadsee with the Tischrin dam at the narrowest point
Photo: Copernicus Sentinel Data / Eo Browser
There has always been a war on the banks of the Euphrates in northern Syria. Here lies an old castle with an eventful history. Qalʿat Nadschm or the Star Castle, so the translation, was probably once built on the site of an old Roman settlement. Over time, the fortress was conquered by various Arab family clans and later by the Mongols. Several times enemies destroyed the walls lying on a hill, but it was rebuilt again and again. Even recently, the fighting over the castle did not stop. Most recently, the Syrian Democratic Forces hunted them from the Islamic State in June 2016.
The Tischrin Dam is a few meters downstream from the old star castle. It is just as important for electricity generation in Syria as the river is for the country's water management. The Tischrin turbines generate more than 600 megawatts of electricity per year; at the Tabqa Dam, which dams the Euphrates further south to Lake Assad, which is up to ten kilometers wide, it is more than 820 megawatts.
But the country is currently worried for its hydropower yield, and there are other, possibly much worse, consequences. Because the water level of the river, which has its source in southeastern Turkey, is at a historically low level. In this way it is hardly possible to generate electricity. The Oroville Dam in California recently experienced something similar. This important power plant for the western United States had to be shut down due to its ineffectiveness.
The Euphrates and its neighbor Tigris, which runs further to the east, are the most important rivers in the Middle East.
They have shaped people's lives since the first advanced civilizations in Mesopotamia, and in Mesopotamia they provided water for agriculture and livestock.
According to Genesis, paradise is said to be somewhere near the rivers that flow together into the Gulf of Persia.
And for drinking water as well as agriculture and fishing, the water veins still play a decisive role today - not only for the generation of electricity that drives air conditioning systems.
Around twelve million people in Syria and Iraq could be affected by the water crisis, the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) recently warned.
“Our biggest problem is water.
People, animals and land - we all depend on water to live, ”a farmer from the region told the NRC.
According to the information, heavy losses in wheat production are expected this year.
According to the Iraqi water resources minister Mahdi Rasheed al Hamdani, the levels in the Euphrates and Tigris are only half as high as last year.
The reason for this lies in a severe drought that has lasted for years, the worst in decades.
Syria has only recorded 50 to 70 percent of normal rainfall over the past two years.
Around 400 square kilometers of agricultural land are threatened.
There had always been times with less precipitation in the region.
For example, in 2014 there were crop failures around Aleppo for such reasons.
However, a general trend towards more drought has been observed since the 1970s, with less rainfall on average in the winters with more precipitation.
Measurements by the NASA “Grace” satellite had shown that water resources in the Tigris-Euphrates basin declined more sharply between 2003 and 2009 than in almost any other region in the world.
Researchers are increasingly assuming that the trend towards more severe droughts is also related to man-made climate change.
Poor water management in some places, for example due to the construction of tens of thousands of wells, some of them illegal, and increasing population pressure, continue to make the situation worse.
Parts of the once so fertile crescent moon, which inspired mankind to agriculture more than 10,000 years ago, now threaten to turn into a disaster region again.
This could worsen the situation in troubled Syria.
“The water crisis is bound to get worse.
It will likely exacerbate the conflict in an already destabilized region, ”said Gerry Garvey, the Danish Refugee Council's regional director for the Middle East.
The number of infections caused by contaminated drinking water is already increasing in some places.
Experts have long feared that climate change could spark wars over water and resources in the long term.
According to a study by Colin Kelley of the University of California, the war in Syria, which caused a large flow of refugees to Europe and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, could ultimately have been sparked by a drought.
It began in 2006 and lasted until 2010. It is true that the drought was by no means the only cause.
But given the current situation, that opens up a worrying prospect for the future.
joe
