Shafaq News- Damascus

Syria closed the final spillway gate at the Euphrates Dam and cut water releases by 200 cubic meters per second after inflows from Turkiye continued to decline, the Energy Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry clarified that total releases have now reached about 700 cubic meters per second.

The remaining flow is passing only through the dam’s power-generation turbines, meaning all spillway gates have been shut, marking the end of a phased reduction that began after unusually high Euphrates levels forced Syrian authorities to open spillway gates to protect the dam and regulate river flows.

Last month, high Euphrates levels in Syria and Iraq pushed authorities to prepare for incoming water waves. In Iraq, Euphrates flows enter through Al-Qaim before reaching Haditha Dam, which Iraqi water expert Tahseen Al-Moussawi previously described as the country’s “first line of defense” against the incoming wave.

Releases arriving from Syria had not exceeded 2,000 cubic meters per second, Al-Moussawi explained, while Haditha Dam had capacity exceeding 10 billion cubic meters and storage of less than 2 billion cubic meters at the time.