Al-Wehda Dam
The sharing of the waters of the Yarmouk River between the two countries is governed by a 1987 treaty that set up a Jordanian-Syrian Yarmouk River Basin Higher Committee. The agreement was renewed in 2001 when the design of the dam was modified, reducing the storage capacity from 480 to 115 million cubic meters, and removing a hydropower plant that had initially been foreseen from the plans. According to a statement made by the Jordanian Minister of Water and Irrigation, Mousa Jamani, in April 2012 Syria violates the water sharing agreement, because Syrian farmers downstream of the dam use more than the 6 million cubic meters per year that they are entitled to for irrigation along the riverbank. The Minister also said that "since the agreement was signed, the number of Syrian dams increased from 26 to 48, while around 3,500 wells were drilled to pump water from the river basin", thus decreasing the amount of water flowing into the dam's reservoir. Until the 1960s, the Yarmouk River’s flow used to reach 16 cubic meters per second, but has since dropped to only one cubic meter per second.
The Syrian banks of the Yarmuk on the border, as well as the Syrian half of the dam, were captured by the Israel Defense Forces on 17 December 2024 during their invasion into Syria. "Israel took control of the Al-Wahda Dam on the Yarmouk river reservoir near the town of Al-Qusayr in Syria’s Daraa Governorate on the border with the Kingdom of Jordan, which provides for approximately 30% of Syria’s fresh water supply, and 40% of the fresh water supply of Jordan", reported Israeli journalist Amir Tsarfati.
References
- ^ "Al-Wehdah Dam - Jordan". Özaltın İnşaat. Archived from the original on June 13, 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
- ^ Al-Taani, Ahmed A. (October 2011). "Seasonal variations in water quality of Al-Wehda Dam north of Jordan and water suitability for irrigation in summer". Arabian Journal of Geosciences. 6 (4). Arabian Journal of Geosciences-Springer: 1131–1140. doi:10.1007/s12517-011-0428-y.
- ^ Two leaders launch Al Wihdeh Dam Archived 2012-03-01 at the Wayback Machine, Jordan Times, 10 February 2004
- ^ Aaron T. Wolf and Joshua T. Newton. "The Jordan River - Johnston Negotiations 1953-1955; Yarmuk Mediations 1980s -". Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation, Oregon State University. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
- ^ Hana Namrouqa (28 April 2012). "Yarmouk water sharing violations require political solution". Jordan Times. Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ "Water war heats up: Israel seizes Syria's Al-Wahda dam in strategic military push". JFeed. 17 December 2024.
- ^ "Israeli invasion of Syria: Map Update". Creative Destruction Media. 18 December 2024.