Altering Events

Traumatic experiences (like deforestation and massive flooding) can prompt the river to adopt a new channel, re-occupy an old one, or completely change character. More subtly, variances in the water supply and debris from the watershed to the river can continue to influence river processes and form for decades. Building communities in the uplands, building dams, or leveeing-off floodplains can change the self-governing variables that impact river performance. Even when the event itself is no longer distinct, its impact may endure. For this reason, we say rivers maintain memories.

1970's

Industrialization

With more than four million inhabitants the Orontes River basin in Syria is an area of prime importance for both agriculture and industry. The basin contains the two major urban centres of Homs and Hama, several medium size cities and a wide range of industrial activities. Land irrigated using surface water and groundwater covers over 290’000 hectares, close to the area irrigated in the Euphrates basin which has received far more attention in the past four decades. The Orontes basin became one of the first industrialized regions of Syria with the establishment of state plants such as the sugar factory in 1948 and oil refinery in 1957 in Homs. The state industrial sector grew in the 1970s and 1980s with the establishment of plants including a fertilizer production factory close to Lake Qattinah, spinning mills and a large metallurgical complex in Hama. Industrialization accelerated in the 1990s with the development of private industries in particular chemical and pharmaceutical plants. The agricultural and industrial development in the region, led to a strong growth in the population of the Orontes basin.

1953

The Ghab Project

One of the most significant hydraulic projects in northern Syria, the project began in 1953. The Orontes in the vicinity of al-Asharinah has a very modest slope (0.10%), which prevents the river from supplying enough water to the nearby areas. The project involved draining the plain through which the River Orontes ran. In 1968, the whole plain was drained, granting 11,000 households access to land.

Large regions were made suitable for agriculture as a result of the Ghab project, and new irrigation systems were used. Barrages, irrigation and drainage canal networks were all part of the system. Large barrages were constructed in the villages of Mahardah, Zayzun, Qarqur, and others.

The Ghab project also had the benefit of improving communication infrastructure by constructing rail and road networks that were previously impractical because of marshes. Additionally, malaria declined as a result of the removal of stagnant water.

1940

The Amik Lake Draining

Beginning in 1940, the region around the lake was drained and reclaimed in order to provide space for cotton farming and to eradicate malaria. From 1966 to the early 1970s, the State Hydraulic Works undertook a significant drainage project, channeling the lake's tributary rivers—the Karasu, the ancient Labotas, and the Afrin, the ancient Arceuthus or Arxeuthas—directly to the Orontes. By this time, the lake had been completely drained, and its bed had been reclaimed for farmland.

There are more and more complaints that the draining of Lake Amik has seriously harmed the ecology. Increased soil salinity has a negative impact on reclaimed and irrigated land, resulting in decreased production. The water table has dropped considerably from an average of 20 meters to 400 meters in some spots, necessitating constant maintenance of drainage canals and decreasing the productivity of the reclaimed farmland in many regions despite the drainage works. The decline in subterranean water levels has been linked to an increase in building subsidence and severe damage.