Suruç Water Tunnel ( is a water supply tunnel located in

Suruç Suruç (; ; ''Sruḡ'') is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 744 km2, and its population is 100,961 (2022). It is on a plain near the Syria–Turkey border, Syrian border southwest ...

district of

Şanlıurfa Province Şanlıurfa Province (; ), also known as Urfa Province, is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in southeastern Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which be ...

, southeastern Turkey. The purpose of the tunnel is to provide

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

for the Suruç Valley from

Atatürk Dam The Atatürk Dam (), originally the Karababa Dam, is the third largest dam in the world and it is a zoned rock-fill dam with a central core on the Euphrates River on the border of Adıyaman Province and Şanlıurfa Province in the Southeastern ...

. With its length of , it is the country's longest tunnel.

Technical features

The water tunnel was commissioned by the

State Hydraulic Works The State Hydraulic Works () 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 energy, agriculture, servi ...

(DSI) on December 25, 2008. For the building of the water tunnel, Ilci Construction Inc. was contracted. The construction works at an altitude of

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

began on March 18, 2009. The excavation of the water tunnel was carried out with a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

(TBM), which is long and has a cutting shield of diameter. The TBM was transported from Italy on 300 trailers, and its assembly completed after twelve months on August 21, 2010. Synchronised with the progress of excavation, the inner walls of the tunnel were lined with thick

precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable molding (process), mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples i ...

hexagons. The average daily progress of the excavation works was between . The water tunnel has an average downhill slope of 0.49% through the Gazientep Formation of the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

and

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

geological period The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the geologic record, rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating stratum, strata ...

Economics

The construction cost about 2 billion. As part of the

Southeastern Anatolia Project The Southeastern Anatolia Project (, GAP) is a multi-sector integrated regional development project based on the concept of sustainable development for the 9 million people (2023) living in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey, Southeastern An ...

, it supplies water to agricultural land covering an area of about in Suruç Valley and to 134 populated places in and around Suruç. With its inner diameter of , the water tunnel has a discharge capacity of , which makes it bigger than many rivers in Turkey. It is expected that the project will create jobs for at least 190,000 people in the region. With irrigation by the Suruç Water Tunnel, over 8,000 farmers will be able to produce more profitable agricultural product. Ministry of Forest and Water Management

Veysel Eroğlu Veysel Eroğlu (born 18 August 1948) is a Member of Parliament for Afyonkarahisar of the ruling Justice and Development Party and a former Minister of Forestry and Water of Turkey. Early life Eroğlu was born on 18 August 1948 in the Şuhut ...

stated that its contribution to the country's economy will as much as 270 million annually.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suruc Water Tunnel Water tunnels Water supply and sanitation in Turkey Tunnels in Turkey Tunnels completed in 2014 Buildings and structures in Şanlıurfa Province Southeastern Anatolia Project Irrigation in Turkey 2014 establishments in Turkey

Technical features

Economics

See also

References