Syria-Water Sources

For decades, Israel has occupied one of Syria’s foremost water resources, the Golan Heights.  Seized by Israel towards the close of the 1967 Six Day War The Golan Heights is a crucial source of water for the arid region. Rainwater from the Golan's catchment feeds into the River Jordan. The area provides as much as a third of Israel's water supply, a resource that Syria has greatly required in these past years.

Furthermore, it has been suggested that river flow into Syria and Iraq has been reduced by between 40 and 80 percent as a result of Turkey’s recent water management policies and large-scale irrigation and hydro-energy projects, principally the Great Anatolia Project (GAP).   GAP has placed Turkey in a position of great command over the Tigris-Euphrates river basin and consist of an immense system of reservoirs built just upstream of Syria and Iraq.

 

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers both originate in the Anatolian Highlands of Turkey and flow through Syria and Iraq. As the upstream riparian in the Euphrates-Tigris River Basin, Turkey has control of the fates of the downstream riparian (Iraq and Syria).   Turkey contributes 88 percent of the water flow of the Euphrates River and 43 percent for the Tigris, making Syria and Iraq heavily reliant on external water sources. The severe lack of river flux due to both the Turkish reservoir system and widespread drought has caused even greater reliance on groundwater. 

The GAP project, to be completed by 2017, will comprise a system of 22 dams, 19 hydroelectric plants and 1.7 million hectares of irrigated lands.  The GAP project is expected to provide 23% of Turkey’s total energy supply.