The Turkish authorities are contributing to the spread of cholera in Syria by cutting the flow of water to into the Euphrates river and urban centres in the northeast, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“This devastating cholera outbreak will not be the last water-borne disease to impact Syrians if the country’s severe water problems are not immediately addressed, particularly in the northeast,” said HRW’s regional director Adam Coogle. “Turkey can, and should, immediately stop aggravating Syria’s water crisis.”
HRW cited former UN humanitarian relief co-ordinator Imran Riza, who called the outbreak, officially declared in September, “a serious threat to the Syrian people” and the region. He said the source of infection is “believed to be linked to people drinking unsafe water from the Euphrates river and using contaminated water to irrigate crops.”
The report says that by November 1st, the World Health Organisation had recorded 81 deaths from cholera in Syria and more than 24,000 suspected cases. Cholera has spread to crisis-ridden Lebanon and Iraq. A decade of conflict has “fragmented Syria, decimating its civilian infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, water and sanitation systems, and electricity grids”.
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The primary focus of the report was the region in northeast Syria controlled by US-sponsored Kurdish forces (regarded as affiliates of rebel Turkish Kurds) where, since early 2021, Turkey has “restricted the flow of water to the Syrian portion of the [Euphrates] river, well beneath the [amount] stipulated by a 1987 agreement between Turkey and Syria. Consequently, more than five million people have been affected by dangerously low levels of water, according to HRW. The report says drought and Turkish “disruptions” at the Allouk water station, which serves 460,000 people in Hasakeh city and the surrounding region have also contributed to the crisis.
While Ankara has denied cutting supplies, an unidentified international non-profit organisation told HRW that during a period when water levels were declining in Syria’s reservoirs and harming its hydroelectric dams, water levels at Turkey’s Ataturk Reservoir on the Turkish-held Euphrates were rising.
According to HRW: “Syria and Iraq have long accused Turkey of using its hegemony over the river as a political tool, while Turkey has occasionally implied that it is, in effect, a Turkish resource.”
HRW also cited 150 humanitarian organisations which last month expressed alarm over cholera and called for “unfettered access” for humanitarian supplies and personnel to northeastern Syria. HRW said: “The Syrian authorities have long obstructed assistance that moves across front lines from government-held parts of the country into non-government-controlled territory.”
The Turkish press office at the foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment on the report.
