Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering

Water Resources of the Euphrates River Catchment

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• Abstract

  The River Euphrates is the longest River in southwest Asia. Its length reaches 2786 km and drains an area of about 440000 km2, which is occupied by 23 million inhabitants. The Euphrates basin is shared by 5 countries (Iraq 47%, Turkey 28%, Syria 22%, Saudi Arabia 2.97%, Jordan 0.03%) where the first three countries are the main riparian. Climate change and construction of dams in the upper parts of the basin has reduced the flow downstream with time. The flow was about 30.6 BCM in Hit (Iraq) before 1974, and now it is about 4 BCM. Syria and Iraq are facing water shortage and quality deterioration problems, which require national, regional and international cooperation to overcome these problems.

  Keywords: Euphrates River, Turkey, Syria, Iraq