Locals suspect the Kurdish-led forces are cutting off power to stoke local anger and unrest in the Turkish-held territories while Kurds have blamed Turks, claiming they are struggling to find ways of getting water to towns in the east of the country after the latter allowed damage to pumping stations in 2019, it said.
Turkey carried out multiple cross-border military operation into northern Syria targeting Kurdish forces. It took control of Kurdish lands east of the Euphrates following an offensive in October 2019. Ankara has since been accused of choking water flowing into northern Syria as a means to undermine the control of Syrian Kurdish authorities in the region, a charge Turkey denies.
“There has been no electricity for months now. We are reaching the edge of our patience,” Mohammed al-Abou, a police officer serving in the Turkish-backed forces providing security in the town, told the London Economic.
The shortage of natural resources has led to protests by Syrians in Turkish-controlled Tal Abyad, it said, demanding military action against the Kurdish forces controlling the dam, which traditionally provided the area with power for the water pumps.
Kurds have also accused Turks of reducing water flows of the Euphrates river, which Ankara maintains is due to drought.
Water flowing from the upper Euphrates River in Turkey down to Syria is governed by international agreements, which specify how much water Syria is supposed to receive.
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