Rising Desertification: Turkey’s Euphrates Water Block Poses Dire Challenges for Raqqa Farmers

The suffering of farmers in Raqqa Governorate worsens at the beginning of each agricultural season. This time, they are unable to irrigate their crops due to the severe deficiency of Euphrates water, upon which the region’s residents depend for irrigation. In addition to years of drought, Turkey has been withholding Syria’s share of the water since 2020.

Experts and farmers warn about the risks threatening the agricultural sector in the region, considered the most crucial for the population, and the increasing tendency of the Euphrates toward drought. The decrease in dam water levels, exceeding two meters following the subsequent stoppage of water stations that flow through irrigation channels on the river, has led to additional obstacles in the energy sector.”

The agricultural industry is under threat.

“Water has not flowed in irrigation canals for years, the agricultural land almost entirely becoming rainfed,” said Shaaban Ali, a farmer in Raqqa province to Target Media Platform. Adding in his local dialect: “Our lands have been ruined by the lack of water,“ as they suffer from a shortage of Euphrates water due to Turkey’s blocking of water. Farmers depend on authorities to renew drains, and canals and increase irrigation.

The farmer Hassan Al-Okla, from the village of Al-Mishrifah in the countryside of Raqqa during an interview with Target Media Platform, stated that the lack of irrigation means the loss of agriculture, the loss of livelihood, and annual resources, describing the lack of Euphrates water supply from Turkey as “catastrophic” for the region.

In an interview with farmer Raad Al-Mihhimeed, a resident from Kasrat in the Raqqa region, said to Target Media Platform that the lack of water aggravates the suffering of farmers and the agriculture industry. Winter crops are sold at low prices relative to the high price of fuel, fertilizer, and other products. Also, much of the water used in the region is groundwater. Al-Mihhimeed stressed that irrigation is necessary for the people of the region.

High salinity in the soil

The water shortage, rain issues, and other problems lead to high salinity in the soil. Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land are unworkable due to the problem of groundwater drainage. The land of the region is saline soil which makes the land vulnerable to elevated salinity, while most of the agricultural lands are located in the surroundings of the Euphrates.

The director of operations for the Euphrates Dam, Imad Obaid, said to Target Media Platform: “There is an international treaty signed in 1987 between Syria, Iraq, and Turkey that stipulates that the Turkish side passes 500 cubic meters of Euphrates River water per second to Syria, but for more than two years only half of the amount has passed, which is approximately 250 cubic meters per second.” He added that the water arriving from Turkey is depleted through evaporation, drinking water pumps, and irrigation. A rationing system was followed to maintain the operation of the Euphrates Dam due to the lack of water supply.

Obaid explained, “The maximum level of the Euphrates is 304 meters above sea level, but the current level is 298 meters, which means 6 meters have been lost, and therefore we are two meters away from the final level of running the dam which is 296. At this level, the electric turbines cannot operate. Thus, the dam is about to stop. The total capacity of the lake is 14 billion cubic meters, but now it does not exceed 10 billion cubic meters, due to the blocking of water from the Turkish side”.

Sheikh Nabi Khalil, head of the operations department at the Agriculture and Irrigation Committee, said the lack of water leads to an increase in the salinity of agricultural land. Raqqa region is getting 45 cubic meters of water, a small amount compared to its need in agricultural lands. He referred to the lack of machines to clean the drains and the lack of machines to create new drains. The general shortage of waterwheels to clean the groundwater sewage drains leads to serious issues, as dust accumulates and leads to them becoming inoperable.

Nabi Khalil stated that they are trying as much as possible to deliver water to the end of the canals to irrigate the lands. He also mentioned the inability to secure water needs because of decreased storage of water in the dam, as well as the lack of commitment to the agricultural plan by farmers. These factors caused damage to the water flow in the canals, especially in the eastern regions. He warned that if the water situation remains like this, only 50% or less of the water allocation will be secured for the coming season, and the water will remain less than the previous season.

According to the Agriculture and Irrigation Committee in Raqqa, the agricultural lands in the governorate are approximately 400,000 dunums, of which 100,000 are irrigated by artesian wells, and 300,000 are irrigated through rivers and canals. People of the region depend on agriculture as a main source of income, growing wheat, barley, cotton, and corn in addition to vegetables.

It is noteworthy that Turkey has been withholding the water necessary for both Iraq and Syria since February 2020, despite widespread condemnation campaigns and demands to release the share of the two countries under the 1987 agreement. With international laws that determine the share of water amount of rivers, repeated warnings have been issued by the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES), and human rights organizations of environmental and natural disasters that threaten the region if the water cuts continue. Demands have been made for international intervention to force the Turkish state to release water.

Turkey has established 22 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, including “14 dams on the Euphrates and 8 on the Tigris,” most notably the Ataturk and Ilsu dams, despite warnings of their possible impact on causing disasters. These dams also block Syria’s and Iraq’s shares of water, resulting in immense damage to the agricultural lands in Syria. Desertification has increased by more than 50% in the marshes of southern Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands of livestock, and causing the displacement of rural residents towards cities, according to what official bodies and international organizations documented.