Afrin Dam

The Afrin Dam (سد عفرين), officially 17 April Dam (سد 17 نيسان), also called Maydanki Dam (سد ميدانكي), is an earth-filled water storage and hydroelectric power dam on the Afrin River in northwest Syria. It provides drinking water to almost 200,000 people, irrigates about 30,000 ha of olives, fruit trees and agricultural crops, and supplies 25 MW of hydroelectric power. It is currently under the control of the Turkish Land Forces.

Location
The dam is north of the town of Afrin in northwest Syria. It is 70 km from the city of Aleppo and 12 km from the town of Afrin, near the village of Midaneka (Maydanki). A large part of the region is planted with olive and fruit trees. About 80% of the area depends on rainwater irrigation, and the remainder on wells and pumps. Before the dam was built the orchards and other crops were irrigated, but the olive trees were not. The Afrin District is populated by Kurds, the furthest west of the Syrian Kurdish regions.

The catchment area is 1365 km2, with annual rainfall of 330 to 700 mm. The Afrin River originates in the south of the Kartal Mountains in Turkey, crosses into Syria where it runs through the city of Afrin, and then crosses back into Turkey. About 250000000 m3 of the annual flow of the river comes from the Hatay Province of Turkey, while about 60000000 m3 originates in Syria.

History
The dam was intended to irrigate land in the river valley in the region between Aleppo and the border with Turkey. The project was approved in 1984 after extensive studies by the Ministry of Irrigation. The dam would control the river flow and prevent flooding, would irrigate up to 30000 ha of land, supply drinking water in the region, provide up to 20 MW of hydroelectric power and would become a tourist attraction.

Construction began in 1997. The dam was built for the General Water Resources Authority at a total cost of LS 58.2 billion, including the cost of land acquisition for the reservoir. 1,800,000 m3 of earth and rock was excavated during construction. The dam was inaugurated on 24 April 2004 in the presence of Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari. Syrian state resolution No. 1849 of 2004 declared that the 17 April Dam Lake was a protected area.

A 2016 report noted that water usage appeared to have dropped due to the Syrian Civil War. On 9 March 2018, during Operation Olive Branch, armed units belonging to the Syrian National Army rebel faction and the Turkish Armed Forces seized control of the dam, capturing it from the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG).

On 13 January 2019, body filling, water intake structure, reinforced concrete and mechanical cover systems were completed and repaired by the Turkish State Hydraulic Works (DSI), who renamed it the Upper Afrin Dam.

After the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, the Afrin Dam suffered damage, with visible cracks on its surface, raising concerns that the dam could collapse. Activists and journalists were prevented from visiting the dam by the Syrian National Army. Water levels were reportedly low at the time.

Dam
The earth-filled dam is 73 m high, with a crest length of 983 m. It has a width of 385 m at the base and 22 m at the crest. The top of the dam is at an altitude of 339 m. The outlet tower has a cross-section of 20 by and a height of 89.5 m. The half-fan spillway has capacity of 1329 m3/s.

A tunnel with a diameter of 5.5 m and length of 280 m provides for emergency discharge. Another tunnel, with a diameter of 15 m and length of 295 m. is used to discharge drinking and irrigation water. There are also wells and tunnels for inspection and drainage of water infiltrating the dam. An innovative network of electrical measurement devices is installed in the body of the dam and the different facilities, including those for measuring temperature and seismic activity. The hydroelectric plant provides 25 MW of power.

Reservoir
The reservoir has a capacity of 190000000 m3. It is 14 km long, and 650 m wide in the center section. It covers an area of 925 ha. The maximum flow is 1840 m3/s. The irrigated area is 31263 ha in the Afrin district. Irrigation plans are 52% olive trees, 11% fruit trees, 31% crops such as wheat, barley, beets, watermelons and cotton, and 6% other vegetables. Drinking water is supplied to about 197,000 people.

Tourism
Maydanki Lake is a popular domestic recreational spot, often visited by Aleppians in the summer for picnics and swimming. Local tourism diminished as result of the civil war, however, and mostly collapsed during Operation Olive Branch. Nevertheless, the region's tourism sector had begun to recover by July 2018, with two of the lake's ten cafes and restaurants reopened.