The Syrian Tabqa Dam: Its Development and Impact

The Euphrates River has its sources in eastern Turkey's Anatolian Plateau and extends 3,000 kilometers through Syria and Iraq before it discharges into the river's delta at Shat AI-Arab in the Arabian Gulf. It is an exotic river, a center of past civilization and population, and a managed river with an extensive delta. It floods in early summer but its flooded area dries-out very quickly in the semiarid climate. The Euphrates River can maintain an annual flow throughout its course because of relatively high rainfall and snow-melt at higher elevations. Utilization of its drainage basin has been intensified from its source in the uplands of Turkey to the Gulf since ancient times. The purpose of this paper is to describe one of the intensification projects, viz., Syria's activities along its northern portion of the Euphrates River where it constructed the Tabqa Dam and Lake Assad, and to assess the project's impact.