Afrin Dam

The Afrin Dam (Arabic: ), officially 17 April Dam (Arabic: 17 ), also called Maydanki Dam (Arabic: ), is an earth-filled water storage and hydroelectric power dam on the Afrin River in northwest Syria. It provides drinking water to almost 200,000 people, irrigates about 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of olives, fruit trees and agricultural crops, and supplies 25 MW of hydroelectric power. It is currently under the control of the Turkish Armed Forces.

The dam is north of the town of Afrin in northwest Syria. It is 70 kilometres (43 mi) from the city of Aleppo and 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the town of Afrin, near the village of Midaneka (Maydanki). A large part of the region is planted with olive and fruit trees. About 80% of the area depends on rainwater irrigation, and the remainder on wells and pumps. Before the dam was built, the orchards and other crops were irrigated, but the olive trees were not. The Afrin District is populated by Kurds, the furthest west of the Syrian Kurdish regions. The catchment area is 1,365 square kilometres (527 sq mi), with annual rainfall of 330 to 700 millimetres (13 to 28 in). The Afrin River originates in the south of the Kartal Mountains in Turkey, crosses into Syria where it runs through the city of Afrin, and then crosses back into Turkey. About 250,000,000 cubic metres (8.8×109 cu ft) of the annual flow of the river comes from the Hatay Province of Turkey, while about 60,000,000 cubic metres (2.1×109 cu ft) originates in Syria.

The dam was intended to irrigate land in the river valley in the region between Aleppo and the border with Turkey. The project was approved in 1984 after extensive studies by the Ministry of Irrigation. The dam would control the river flow and prevent flooding, irrigate up to 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land, supply drinking water in the region, provide up to 20 MW of hydroelectric power and would become a tourist attraction. Construction began in 1997. The dam was built for the General Water Resources Authority at a total cost of LS 58.2 billion, including the cost of land acquisition for the reservoir. 1,800,000 cubic metres (64,000,000 cu ft) of earth and rock was excavated during construction. The dam was inaugurated on 24 April 2004 in the presence of Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari. Syrian state resolution No. 1849 of 2004 declared that the 17 April Dam Lake was a protected area. A 2016 report noted that water usage appeared to have dropped due to the Syrian Civil War. On 9 March 2018, during Operation Olive Branch, armed units belonging to the Syrian National Army rebel faction and the Turkish Armed Forces seized control of the dam, capturing it from the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG). On 13 January 2019, body filling, water intake structure, reinforced concrete and mechanical cover systems were completed and repaired by the Turkish State Hydraulic Works (DSI), who renamed it the Upper Afrin Dam. After the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, the Afrin Dam suffered damage, with visible cracks on its surface, raising concerns that the dam could collapse. Activists and journalists were prevented from visiting the dam by the Syrian National Army. Water levels were reportedly low at the time.

Dam data from Wikidata (CC0) plus curated additions. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).