February’s earthquakes have damaged the Middle East’s dams

The turkishun authorities announced on March 30th that 140 dams had been inspected since hit southern Turkey and northern Syria in February. None, they insisted, was seriously damaged. Still, many in the Middle East remain fearful about the state of the more than 860 dams along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and their tributaries. officials say that, since the earthquakes, fractures have appeared in eight dams in the region including three in Syria. The Taloul dam in the Syrian province of Idlib, already devastated , was struck by an aftershock and burst on February 8th. The flood washed away this year’s harvest and filled the streets with debris. Thousands fled. Cracks over a metre wide have been seen in the Sultansuyu dam 200km north of the Syrian border, prompting the Turkish authorities to discharge its waters as a “precautionary measure”. Engineers, however, say the dam is damaged beyond repair.