“There was a blackout at Tishreen Dam. The dam is out of service now. Cables fell and the gates were closed, leading to the closure of the dam. The staff tried to use the generators but soon they ran out of diesel. Water is flowing into the dam now,” Ali Demir told Rudaw English on Thursday.
Tishreen Dam sits on the Euphrates River in northern Syria, upstream from scores of towns and villages as well as urban centres like Raqqa. It provides electricity to much of northeast Syria (Rojava).
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), with the help of American troops, took control of the dam from the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2015.
It has recently come under attack by the Ankara-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), who are part of a broader coalition of militia groups who joined forces against the now-collapsed regime of Bahsar al-Assad.
The dam is now out of service and Demir warned that they may not be able to hold back a rush of water that would pose a threat to the people living downstream, which includes neighboring Iraq.
Tishreen holds two million cubic meters of water. Roughly 90 kilometers downstream is Tabqa Dam.
If Tishreen bursts, “this water will then reach Tabqa, which already has 14 million cubic meters of water… I do not think Tabqa Dam will be able to hold this water, so it could cause a disaster in Iraq… The dam is in terrible condition. The impact will not be limited to structural damage, but could cause great damage in Iraq,” said Demir.
The Rojava Information Center said on Thursday that the attacks have damaged turbines and caused leakages, adding that “Maintenance teams are currently unable to enter the dam to reconnect cables and operate the dewatering pumps needed to prevent flooding and equipment damage.”
An informed source from Iraq’s Haditha Dam, which is the first facility holding Euphrates water once it enters the country, told Rudaw English on the condition of anonymity on Friday that there will be no danger to Iraq even if Tishreen Dam collapses.
“Tabqa Dam is also capable of withholding the water that comes from Tishreen Dam,” the source said. “There is no problem at all.”
However, the NES Forum, a non-governmental organization operating in Kurdish-held areas of Syria, on Tuesday made an urgent call to “all parties to the conflict to immediately cease hostile exchanges in the vicinity of the critical Tishreen Dam in Northeast Syria.”
“Damages sustained to the infrastructure itself could lead to the loss of lives and livelihoods of up to one million people in the downstream subdistricts should the dam collapse,” it added.
According to the forum, the immediate risks include “flooding, loss of life, damage to agricultural lands as well as properties, including downstream Tabqa dam.”
Even if the dam holds, its power generation is offline.
Yasumasa Kimura, United Nations Children’s Fund representative to Syria, told CNN on Friday that the lack of electricity for a nearby water treatment facility could cause a “complete water cut” to more than three million people in Aleppo - the most populated province in the country.
Ongoing clashes
SNA attacks on Tishreen Dam intensified after the militants took control of nearby Manbij city from the SDF a few days ago.
Demir has been warning against a potential threat to the region for days.
“We do not know how to prevent the flow of water into the dam. Five staff members have been stuck there for a week, without access to food or water. They are terrified and in a terrible condition,” he said, adding that they are doing their best to prevent a “disaster.”
He shared with Rudaw English voice recordings of the staff desperately pleading for help.
The SDF said in a statement on Friday that its forces had been resisting SNA attacks for three days at the dam, but that Turkey has provided the militants with aerial support.
“Despite the heavy air cover aimed at hindering our resistance, our fighters employed modern warfare tactics, ambushed the remnants of the mercenaries, and inflicted heavy losses on them, including the deaths of many of their leaders and the destruction of their tanks and vehicles,” the Kurdish-led force said.
The SDF said that they have so far repelled all SNA attacks, however, Turkish state media claimed that their militia allies had control of the dam on Friday. The Rojava Information Centre said there were no clashes on Friday.
Demir told Rudaw English late on Friday that the dam remains under the control of the SDF. He said the dam is nearly at capacity and they are trying to use pumps to prevent it overflowing.
