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Use of the water from the Euphrates River has led to disagree-
ments between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. All three countries are
working on projects to use the river water to irrigate crops and gen-
erate hydroelectric power. Turkey has begun the Southeast
Anatolia Project, which eventually will create 22 dams and 19
power plants where the Euphrates cascades down from the
Anatolia Mountains. The Atatürk Dam in Turkey, one of the largest
in the world, was completed in 1990 and has formed a reservoir of
315 square miles (815 sq km). In order to keep this reservoir full,
Turkey creates regular interruptions in the flow of the Euphrates;
this affects the amount of water that flows into Syria and Iraq.
Some estimates indicate that when the Southeast Anatolia Project
is completed, it will reduce the flow from the Euphrates by about
40 percent to Syria and 90 percent to Iraq.
Syrian projects also reduce the amount of water from the
Euphrates that reaches Iraq. The Al Thawrah Dam, built by Syria
during the 1970s, created the Assad Reservoir. This significantly
diminished the flow of water reaching Iraq.
If the level of the Euphrates River falls too low, water shortages
in Iraq can result. Water from the Tharthar Reservoir, which is fed
by the Tigris River, can be diverted into the Euphrates when it is
low. In the past, however, the reservoir has not held an adequate
supply to overcome the lack of water resulting from Syrian and
Turkish projects. As a consequence, the relationship between the
three nations has been strained at times. In 1998 Syria and Iraq
agreed to work together to oppose the Southeast Anatolia Project,
but their attempts to halt the project have been unsuccessful.
T
HE
R
EGIONS
Geographically, the country of Iraq can be divided into four distinct
regions. One is the southern
alluvial
plain, which begins just
northwest of Baghdad and stretches southeast to the Persian Gulf.
I
RAQ
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