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... and all of this is possible because Turkey took advantage of the disarray in Iraq and Syria over the last 20 years and built large dams and aqueducts on the
by koheripbal 4y ago
... and all of this is possible because Turkey took advantage of the disarray in Iraq and Syria over the last 20 years and built large dams and aqueducts on the upper Tigris and Euphrates rivers, drastically reducing their flows and causing water levels in Southern Iraqi marsh lands to almost entirely dry up.
It's a humanitarian catastrophe.
Not to say that we should not use this opportunity to do critical archeology. In fact, this situation may not last, so we should invest in digs asap.
...but it is still important to understand the nature of why these sites are being discovered now.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoDams don't 'dry up' rivers - they control them. The lake created doesn't have infinite capacity. Once filled, the flow downstream resumes normal levels. Just doesn't have floods like it used to.
- readthenotes1 4y agoWhere I live, we then drain those lakes regularly for the water of our cities so the water available down stream is greatly reduced except in tons of flood in which case it is unusually high.
- hinkley 4y agoThe Mediterranean would dry up if the Straits of Gibraltar closed up. That’s some very large fraction of all rivers in Europe plus the biggest in Africa that never actually make it to the Atlantic. Evaporation is the cause.
- rhodorhoades 4y agoThis is untrue. You aren’t thinking about the effects of sediment, usage, and erosion. When you build a dam and allow the riverbeds to dry, it changes the entire water table of the region.
- lostlogin 4y agoIt also blocks animal migration.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoThey don't dry; they resume as normal once the dam is complete. I don't understand that nobody can see this. The lake can't hold all the water to inifinity. Once it's full, the outflow becomes normal. Except now you can regulate it.
- BurningFrog 4y agoThe marshes were drained by Saddam to punish the local population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draining_of_the_Mesopotamian_Marshes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draining_of_the_Mesopotamian_M...