Afrin River

Croaking frogs. About eight kilometers south of the city of Afrin near the Hittite archaeological site of Tell Ain Dara

The Afrin, Arabic عفرين, DMG ʿ Afrin, Afrin also Nahr, Kurdish Efrin, in the Seleucid period Oinoparas, in the Roman period Ufrenus; is a 149 km long river, which originates in Turkey, passes through the north-west of Syria and the Turkish province of Hatay in the Nahr al - Asi ( Orontes ) opens.

Geography

The headwaters of the Afrin lie west of Gaziantep in the up to 1496 meters high Kartal Mountains and have a generally southern direction of flow to the Turkish- Syrian border. A few kilometers from the headwaters toward Gaziantep runs a north-south watershed. The region east of the ancient landscape Commagene, drained no more into the Mediterranean, but in the valley of the Euphrates. For the same mountain area also arises from the Sabun River, which flows as the largest tributary just below the border at Nebi Houri on the right side in the Afrin. Between the headwaters of Afrin and Sabun is the average 1200 meter high ridge of Kardalar Dagh.

The hilly to mountainous region north and south of the border is a plateau that is dissected by numerous valleys and has received as a cultural landscape the name of the highest mountain Kurd Dagh. Between Nebi Houri and the city of Afrin lie on the rocky hills free bright blue and gray marl layers which are partially or schist and disintegrate easily. This coming from the Eocene layers form flat round hill between the numerous, branching wadis.

In the plains cereal cultivation is possible; where the hills are not too rocky, give extensive olive groves in the region since pre-Christian times its characteristic appearance. The small scattered settlements consist mainly of simple houses and do not show any major investments.

South of the town Afrin the economic situation and agriculture have changed significantly. The Afrin flows to the recent transfer to Turkey in the south, and later south-westerly direction through a wide, fertile valley through deep red soils. In the typical for the westsyrische Altsiedelland strip corridors intensive irrigated agriculture is here, as in the more southern Ghab level of the middle Orontes, operated. Irrigation is not out of the Afrin, the flow rate in the summer months is much too low, but by diesel pump from the groundwater supply. The south of the town of Afrin in the valley villages in ranks (as Basuta ) surrounded by pomegranate orchards. The villages are more affluent than those in the north and expand along the thoroughfare. Cotton, which requires a lot of water, is grown in the dry summer months. The sowing of cotton takes place in April, the harvest takes place in October. Melons, citrus fruits, figs, grapes and vegetables are also of great economic importance and produce high yields.

According to the Turkish border, which crosses the Afrin Westbound at Reyhanli, it flows after a few kilometers, the largest tributary in the Nahr al - Asi ( Orontes ). Also opens shortly before Antakya as a further and final tributary of the Kara Su like this one from the right, north side. Both rivers are channeled to their final kilometers. Until the early 20th century, they first fed the Amik Lake (Turkish: Amik Gölü, in the Ottoman period: Ak Deniz ) before it drained into the Orontes. The lake was north-east of the ancient city of Antioch in the middle of an average of 100 meters high Amik level. Lake and the lower reaches of Afrin were probably navigable at that time. From here, resulted in Roman times a road through fertile agricultural area after Kyrrhos (the present Nebi Houri ) and further to the Euphrates.

The Amik Lake covered together with the extensive marshes at its edges an area of ​​31,000 hectares. He served the irrigation and fishing; as a sanctuary for migratory birds, he was one of the most important ecosystems in Turkey. From the 1940s onwards was begun to drain the lake in order to gain land area for growing cotton. The second objective, the eradication of malaria was indeed achieved, but the side effects were considerable. These include the high cost of the drainage, the destruction of an ecosystem and the destruction of the centuries-old livelihood of the local population. In the 1950s, about 50,000 people settled in 70 villages around the lake. Your sources of income were animal husbandry, agriculture (cereals and vegetables), fishing ( up to 300 tons per year), the harvesting of sedges ( for house building, as mats and baskets for sale ) and hunting. The final drainage of the lake area lasted until the 1970s. Nevertheless, in the spring often cause flooding in the area of the former lake. In 2003, a flood 7,000 hectares of land and parts of villages under water.

Water use and ecology

Of the 149 kilometers total length of 68 km are Afrin in Syria. The flow rate in the annual average of 227 million cubic meters. Of all coming from Turkey tributaries ( Afrin, Kara Su and Ofor ) of the Orontes receives 260 million cubic meters of water. According to another study, there are 310 million. The catchment area of the Orontes in Syria is 21,624 square kilometers, of which 19,907 square kilometers on the Orontes and 1,717 square kilometers on the Afrin Basin.

A planned dam on the Afrin is to irrigate with a capacity of 230 million cubic meters of 20,000 acres of land between Aleppo and the Turkish border. All dams on the Orontes River and its tributaries together to save 600 million cubic meters of water, the construction of dams generally delayed by initially unsecured financing and insufficient planning.

A for the period 1995-2006 planned Turkish dam project is the Reyhanli dam to irrigate the Amik - level. A contract for the construction was signed only in June 2009. He should irrigate an agricultural area of ​​60,000 hectares with a capacity of 460 million cubic meters. Problems for agriculture in the Amik - level have been the heavy clay soils with a high lime content, which drain poorly. Through the use of saline water for irrigation, the salinity of the soil has increased and due to insufficient fertilizer gifts to the cotton monoculture, the nutrient content is decreased.