The Şırnak Dam is a gravity dam on the Ortasu River (a tributary of the Hezil River) about southeast of

Şırnak Şırnak ( ku, شرنەخ, Şirnex) is a town in southeastern Turkey. It is the capital of Şırnak Province, a new province that split from the Mardin and Siirt provinces. The Habur border gate with Iraq which is one of Turkey's main links to Arab ...

town in

Şırnak Province Şırnak Province ( tr, Şırnak ili, ku, Parêzgeha Şirnexê) is a province of Turkey in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. Şırnak Province was created in 1990, with areas that were formerly part of the Siirt and Mardin Provinces. It borders ...

, southeast

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Under contract from Turkey's

State Hydraulic Works The State Hydraulic Works ( tr, Devlet Su İşleri) is a state agency, under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Turkey, responsible for the utilization of all the country's water resources. The institution's four major functions are ene ...

, AGE Inşaat began construction on the dam in 2008 and it was completed in 2012. The reported purpose of the dam is water storage and it can also support a 5 MW hydroelectric power station in the future. Another purpose of the dam which has been widely reported in the Turkish press is to reduce the freedom of movement of

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK) militants. Blocking and flooding valleys in close proximity to the Iraq–Turkey border is expected to help curb cross-border PKK smuggling and deny caves in which ammunition can be stored. A total of 11 dams along the border; seven in Şırnak Province and four in

Hakkâri Province Hakkâri Province (, tr, Hakkâri ili, ku, Parêzgeha Colemêrgê), is a province in the southeast of Turkey. The administrative centre is the city of Hakkâri. The province covers an area of 7,121 km² and had a population of 286,470 in ...

were implemented for this purpose. In Şırnak they are the Silopi Dam downstream of the Şırnak Dam on the Hezil River and upstream is the Uludere, Balli, Kavşaktepe, Musatepe and Çetintepe Dams on the Ortasu River. In Hakkari are the Gölgeliyamaç (since cancelled) and Çocuktepe Dams on the Güzeldere River and the Aslandağ and Beyyurdu Dams on the Bembo River.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sirnak Dam Dams in Şırnak Province Gravity dams Dams completed in 2012 Dams in the Tigris River basin Roller-compacted concrete dams

See also

References