The Ayed drinking water station has completely ceased operations due to the ongoing decline in the water flow of the Euphrates River, leading to a water outage affecting around 25,000 people. In response, the Water Unit of Tabqa Canton is making efforts to implement emergency solutions aimed at alleviating the severity of the crisis and ensuring the minimum water needs of the population are met.
Amid the significant drop in the Euphrates River’s water levels, the Tabqa Water Unit announced the complete shutdown of the Ayed pumping station and its associated wells, resulting in a water outage across dozens of villages.
On April 30, the Energy Body in North and East Syria warned of a worsening crisis concerning the Euphrates River. In a statement issued after the water level in the Euphrates Dam Lake dropped by nearly 6 meters, the body also presented proposed solutions to address the crisis.
The Water Unit of Tabqa reported that the sharp decline in the Euphrates River’s level led to the complete shutdown of the Ayed pumping station, halting the water supply for approximately 25,000 residents of Ayed and its surrounding villages.
The unit urged residents of Ayed and its villages to ration their water usage in the coming days, until emergency pumping solutions are implemented to restore service.
Technical efforts to resume pumping
In a statement to ANHA agency, Muthanna Al-Dandal, Director of the Tabqa Canton Water Unit, explained that technical teams have begun installing two horizontal pumps at a location near the riverbank, as a temporary alternative to facilitate water extraction and distribution to residents.
Al-Dandal pointed out that “the Ayed station relied on two infiltration wells, each equipped with two vertical pumps, which stopped working after the water level dropped, requiring an urgent search for alternative solutions.”
The Euphrates River has now reached the “dead level,” with a daily drop rate of about 2 cm. The total water level decline in the Tabqa Dam has reached approximately 6 meters, while the incoming water from the Turkish side does not exceed 250 cubic meters per second, significantly worsening the current crisis.
Since 2020, the Turkish occupying authorities have continued to restrict the flow of the Euphrates River, causing a dramatic drop in its water level and retreating from vast areas of land. As a result, the reservoirs formed behind dams in North and East Syria have lost large quantities of their strategic water reserves.
