Tabqa Dam - Project History

Project History

In 1927, when Syria was a French mandate, it was proposed to build a dam in the Euphrates near the Syro–Turkish border. After Syria became independent in 1946, the feasibility of this proposal was re-investigated, but the plan was not carried out. In 1957, the Syrian government reached an agreement with the Soviet Union for technical and financial aid for the construction of a dam in the Euphrates. Syria, as part of the United Arab Republic (UAR), signed an agreement with West Germany in 1960 for a loan to finance the construction of the dam. After Syria left the UAR in 1961, a new agreement about the financing of the dam was reached with the Soviet Union in 1965. A special government department was created in 1961 to oversee the construction of the dam.

Originally, the Tabqa Dam was conceived as a dual-purpose dam. The dam would include a hydroelectric power station with eight turbines capable of producing 824 MW in total, and would irrigate an area of 640,000 hectares (2,500 sq mi) on both sides of the Euphrates. Construction of the dam lasted between 1968 and 1973, while the accompanying power station was finished in 1977. Total cost of the dam was US$340 million of which US$100 million was in the form of a loan by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also provided technical expertise. During construction, up to 12 thousand Syrians and 900 Russian technicians worked on the dam. They were housed in the greatly expanded town near the construction site, which was subsequently renamed Al-Thawra. To facilitate this project, as well as the construction of irrigation works on the Khabur River, the national railway system (Chemins de Fer Syriens) was extended from Aleppo to the dam, Ar-Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, and eventually Al-Qamishli. The four thousand-some Arab families who had been living in the flooded part of the Euphrates Valley were resettled in other parts of northern Syria. This resettlement was part of an only partially implemented plan to establish an "Arab belt" along the borders with Turkey and Iraq in order to separate Kurds living in Syria from Kurds living in Turkey and Iraq.