...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...of seizing large quantities of Syria’s share of the Euphrates water.
He demanded the release of the Euphrates water according to the fair share established for both Syria and Iraq, calling on the international community and international organizations to intervene in the issue of the low level of the Euphrates River due to Turkey’s reservation of water.
The minister’s statements came during a tour he made today in Deir ez-Zor governorate.
Ra’id stressed the need to intervene to restore the flow of the Euphrates River to what it was.
The continuation of the situation as it is, will threaten water security in Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah, according to him.
For more than three months, Turkey has limited the flow of the Euphrates into Syria, depriving large numbers of people of usable water. Turkey reduced the flow of water from the Euphrates River into northeast Syria’s dam gradually, reducing the amount of water received to unprecedented lows.
Turkey keeps water in six dams, the largest of which is Ataturk Dam, the second largest in the Middle East, with a storage capacity of 48 billion m³, violating the international agreement they signed with Syria in 1987 which stated that Syria’s share of water coming from Turkey is 500 m³ per second.
The water flow to the Euphrates River is now limited to less than 200 cubic meters, according to the General Administration of Dams in Northeastern Syria.