Tabqa Dam - Characteristics of The Dam and The Reservoir

Characteristics of The Dam and The Reservoir

The Tabqa dam is located on a spot where rocky outcrops on each side of the Euphrates Valley are less than 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) apart. The dam is an earth-fill dam that is 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) long, 60 metres (200 ft) high from the riverbed (307 metres (1,007 ft) above sea-level), 512 metres (1,680 ft) wide at its base and 19 metres (62 ft) at the top. The hydroelectric power station is located on the southern end of the dam and contains eight Kaplan turbines. The turbines' rotation speed is 125 RPM, and they can potentially generate 103 MW each. Lake Assad is 80 kilometres (50 mi) long and on average 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) wide. The reservoir can potentially hold 11.7 cubic kilometres (2.8 cu mi) of water, at which size its surface area would be 610 square kilometres (240 sq mi). Annual evaporation is 1.3 cubic kilometres (0.31 cu mi) due to the high average summer temperature in northern Syria. This is high compared to reservoirs upstream from Lake Assad. For example, the evaporation at Keban Dam Lake is 0.48 cubic kilometres (0.12 cu mi) per year at roughly the same surface area.

Neither the Tabqa Dam nor Lake Assad is currently used to its full economic potential. Although the lake can potentially hold 11.7 cubic kilometres (2.8 cu mi), actual capacity is 9.6 cubic kilometres (2.3 cu mi), with a surface area of 447 square kilometres (173 sq mi). The proposed irrigation scheme suffered from a number of problems, including the high gypsum content in the reclaimed soils around Lake Assad, soil salinization, the collapse of canals that distributed the water from Lake Assad, and the unwillingness of farmers to resettle in the reclaimed areas. As a result, only 60,000 hectares (230 sq mi) were irrigated from Lake Assad in 1984. In 2000, the irrigated surface had risen to 124,000 hectares (480 sq mi), which is 19 percent of the projected 640,000 hectares (2,500 sq mi). Due to lower than expected water flow from Turkey, as well as lack of maintenance, the dam generates only 150 MW instead of 800 MW. Lake Assad is the most important source of drinking water to Aleppo, providing the city through a pipeline with 0.08 cubic kilometres (0.019 cu mi) of drinking water per year. The lake also supports a fishing industry.