Aid groups and engineers are warning of a looming humanitarian disaster in northeast Syria, where waning river flow is compounding woes after a decade of war. - 'Alarming' -Reputed to have once flown through the biblical Garden of Eden, the Euphrates runs for almost 2,800 kilometres (1,700 miles) across Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Across northeast Syria, already power generation has fallen by 70 percent since last year, the head of the energy authority Welat Darwish says. -Almost 90% of the Euphrates flow comes from Turkey, the United Nations says. - 'Drought is coming' -But Syria analyst Fabrice Balanche said the drought did serve Ankara's long-term goal of "asphyxiating northeast Syria economically".

Source: Bangkok Post August 30, 2021 02:03 UTC