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Syria Water Resources
Water is a scarce resource in Syria as it is throughout the
Middle East, but Syria is more fortunate than many other
countries. Sufficient rainfall supports cultivation in an arc
from the southwest, near the border with Israel and Lebanon,
extending northward to the Turkish border and eastward along that
border to Iraq. The other main area of cultivation, although
dependent on irrigation, is along the Euphrates River and its
major tributaries
(see Land, Water, and Climate
, ch. 2).
Rainfall is highest along the Mediterranean coast and on the
mountains just inland; Syria's limited forestry activities are
concentrated in the higher elevations of these mountains.
Rainfall diminishes sharply as one moves eastward of the
mountains paralleling the coast and southward from the Turkish
border. The arc of cultivation from the southwest (and east of
the coastal mountains) to the northeast is largely semiarid,
having as annual rainfall between 300 and 600 millimeters. Areas
south and east of the arc receive less than 300 millimeters of
rain annually, classifying the land as arid. Grass and coarse
vegetation suitable for limited grazing grow in part of this arid
belt, and the rest is desert of little agricultural value.
Rainfall is concentrated between October and May. Without
irrigation, cropping is finished by summer, when the climate is
very hot and dry. Moreover, the amount of rainfall and its timing
varies considerably from year to year, making rain-fed farming
extremely risky. When rains are late or inadequate, farmers do
not even plant a crop. Successive years of drought are not
uncommon and cause havoc not only for farmers but for the rest of
the economy. In the mid-1980s, about two-thirds of agricultural
output (plant and animal production) depended on rainfall.
Extension and improvement of irrigation systems could
substantially raise agricultural output. For example, in 1985,
because of the expansion of irrigation systems, Syria's
agricultural output rose 10 percent above the drought-plagued
yield of 1984. Yields from irrigated fields have been several
times higher than from rain-fed fields, and many irrigated areas
could grow more than a single crop a year. Development of
irrigation systems, however, is both costly and time consuming.
Syria's major irrigation potential lies in the Euphrates
River valley and its two major tributaries, the Balikh and Khabur
(Nahr al Khabur) rivers in the northeast portion of the country.
The Euphrates is the third largest river in the Middle East
(after the Nile in Egypt and the Tigris in Iraq) and its
headwaters rise in Turkey, where relatively heavy rainfall and
snow pack provide runoff much of the year. The river flows
southeastward across the arid Syrian plateau into Iraq, where it
joins the Tigris River shortly before emptying into the Persian
Gulf
(see figure
, ch. 2). In addition to Syria, both Turkey and
Iraq use dams on the Euphrates for hydroelectric power, water
control, storage, and irrigation. In the mid-1980s, about one-
half of the annual Euphrates River flow was used by the three
nations.
Syrians have long used the Euphrates for irrigation, but,
because the major systems were destroyed centuries ago, they make
only limited use of the river's flow. In the mid-1980s, the
Euphrates River accounted for over 85 percent of the country's
surface water resources, but its water was used for only about
two-fifths (200,000 hectares) of the land then under irrigated
cultivation. In 1984, about 44 percent of irrigated land still
used water from wells. Several project studies were conducted
after World War II, and, in the 1960s, the Soviet Union agreed to
provide financial and technical assistance for the Thawra Dam
(also called Euphrates or Tabaqah dam), a large hydroelectrical
power station, and portions of the major Euphrates irrigation
project.
The dam, located at Tabaqah, a short distance upriver from
the town of Ar Raqqah, is earth fill, 60 meters high and four and
one-half kilometers long. Construction began in 1968, and work
was essentially completed by 1978. The Thawra Dam was closed in
1973, when Lake Assad, the artificial lake behind the dam, began
filling. About 80 kilometers long, Lake Assad averages about 8
kilometers in width and holds nearly 12 billion cubic meters of
water. The power plant has eight 100-megawatt turbines for power
generation and transmission lines to Aleppo. Until 1983, the
power station operated at 65 percent of capacity, generating
2,500 megawatts a year or about 45 percent of Syria's
electricity. In 1986, the power station operated at only 30 to 40
percent of capacity because of the low water level in Lake Assad.
Provisions were made, however, for future construction to raise
the height of the dam, increase the capacity of Lake Assad by
about 10 percent, and increase the number of turbines. In 1984,
as a result of the disappointing performance of the dam, the
government studied the possibility of building a second dam
upstream from Tabaqah between Ash Shajarah, situated on the
northern edge of Lake Assad, and Jarabulus, located near the
Turkish border. The ultimate goal of the Euphrates irrigation
project is to provide 640,000 cultivable hectares by the year
2000, in effect doubling the area of Syria's irrigated land in
the mid-1970s. In 1978, observers believed that 20,000 to 30,000
hectares of land had been irrigated and that new housing, roads,
and farms had been completed for the 8,000 farmers displaced by
the creation of Lake Assad. In the early 1980s, Syrian officials
had anticipated the completion of irrigation on about 50,000 to
100,000 hectares in the Euphrates basin, with about 20,000
hectares planned for completion each year after that. The Fourth
Five-Year Plan actually called for irrigating an additional
240,000 hectares by the end of the plan. In 1984, however, Syrian
government statistics revealed that only 60,000 hectares were
actually being irrigated. Ten years after its inception, the
Euphrates irrigation project irrigated only about 10 percent of
its long-term goal.
A variety of complex, interrelated problems frustrated
realization of targeted irrigation goals. Technical problems with
gypsum subsoil, which caused irrigation canals to collapse,
proved more troublesome than at first anticipated. Large cost
overruns on some of the irrigation projects made them much more
expensive than planned and created difficulties in financing
additional projects. Moreover, these large irrigation projects
required several years before returns on the investments began.
There was also doubt about whether farmers could be attracted
back from urban areas or enticed from more crowded agricultural
areas to the sparsely populated Euphrates Valley. Another
complication is that the Euphrates flow is insufficient for the
irrigation needs of the three countries--Turkey, Iran, and Syria-
-that share the river. In 1962, talks on allotment of Euphrates
water began and continued sporadically throughout the 1970s and
early 1980s, but acrimonious relations between Syria and Iraq
hampered final agreements. In fact, in 1978 when Syria began
filling Lake Assad and water to Iraq was greatly reduced, the two
countries almost went to war. In addition, Turkey's use of
Euphrates' waters for its Keban Dam assures that water levels in
Lake Assad will remain low. This problem will undoubtedly
continue into the 1990s, when Turkey completes construction of
the Ataturk Dam.
By 1987, numerous Euphrates irrigation projects and
additional irrigation projects throughout the country were
proceeding, but what had been accomplished was not clear.
Projects initiated in the 1980s included irrigation of 21,000
hectares in the Ar Raqqah area pilot project, 27,000 hectares
reclaimed in the Euphrates middle-stage project, and about half
of a 21,000-hectare plot reclaimed with Soviet assistance in the
Meskanah region. There were also major irrigation schemes
involving 130,000 hectares in the Meskanah, Al Ghab, and Aleppo
plains project. In addition, Syria completed a small regulatory
dam with three seventy-milliwatt turbines approximately twenty-
five kilometers downstream from Tabaqah. In the mid-1980s, work
continued on the Baath Dam, located twenty-seven kilometers from
the Euphrates dam, and the Tishrin Dam on the Kabir ash Shamali
River near Latakia evolved from the planning to implementation
stage. The government also planned to construct as many as three
dams on the Khabur River in northeast Syria and more effectively
use the waters of the Yarmuk River in southwest Syria. Foreign
contractors carried out most of these major development projects.
The Soviets and Romanians were particularly active in irrigation
schemes as part of their economic aid programs. French, British,
Italian, and Japanese firms, the World Bank, and Saudi Arabian
and Kuwaiti development assistance funds were deeply involved in
financing and implementing these projects.
In the 1980s, there was good potential for expanding and
refining irrigation in the western portion of Syria. The
government obtained economical results using small impoundments
that held winter runoffs to supplement rain-fed cultivation and
to provide some summer irrigation. Small storage areas for water
from wells and springs permitted additional irrigation. Farmers,
however, had not yet turned to sprinkler systems or trickle
irrigation, which would considerably reduce the amount of water
needed for cultivation.
Data as of April 1987
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