Syria teams with World Bank to assess earthquake-damaged dams

Shafaq News – Damascus

Syria is coordinating with the World Bank to assess earthquake-damaged dams and update water basin management plans, the head of the General Authority for Water Resources said on Saturday.

The February 2023 Turkiye–Syria quake, for one, caused cracks in the Afrin Dam in the northwest, which supplies drinking water to nearly 200,000 people, irrigates 30,000 hectares, and generates about 25 megawatts of electricity — enough to power roughly 17,000 homes annually. Several smaller mud dams also collapsed, triggering evacuations and flooding.

Ahmad al-Kawan told Shafaq News that the World Bank will help evaluate affected dams, revise basin studies, and develop regular monitoring systems.

Syria, he said, faces “major challenges” in water management, citing prolonged drought, water scarcity, and irregular rainfall that has caused both floods and destructive torrents, with last year’s drought being the worst in more than five decades. Equipment shortages have further limited the state’s capacity to respond.

Reconstruction steps will follow a “timeline agreed with the World Bank,” with efforts focused on improving dam-water efficiency for drinking, agriculture, and energy, he added.

This partnership follows the June 2025 Syria Emergency Electricity Project, which was the first World Bank project in Syria in almost four decades. After the civil war began in 2011, all operational World Bank activity and missions were suspended, ending a partnership that dated back to the 1980s.

Read more: Drought and war leave Syria struggling with water shortages