Red Cross plans urgent repairs to Tabqa dam

geneva — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) plans to carry out urgent repairs to Tabqa Dam near the Syrian city of Raqqa in an area recaptured from Daesh, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The aid agency was able to enter Raqqa and Hassakeh provinces in late July for the first time in four years to see the destruction wrought by the militants, the fighting and US-led coalition air strikes.

US-backed Syrian militias drove Daesh out of the town of Tabqa and the adjacent dam, 45km west of Raqqa along the Euphrates River, in May, but it took time to negotiate safe access.

“The priority for us right now is the water issue,” ICRC spokeswoman Ingy Sedky, speaking from Damascus, said.

Daesh has lost swathes of territory to separate campaigns being waged by Syrian government forces backed by Russia and Iran, and by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia.

SDF officials, focused on capturing Raqqa city, say the advances are proceeding cautiously as Daesh uses snipers, car bombs and booby traps.

Tabqa dam, whose control room was damaged, is the main source of electricity for all of Syria and provides irrigation water for Raqqa, Deir Al Zor and Rural Aleppo, Sedky said. The ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent sent generators some months ago to keep it operating but now engineers are needed.

Sedky said the organisation was discussing maintenance work to pumps and to provide lubrication oil. It aims to restart water pumping stations that serve tens of thousands of displaced civilians who have fled Raqqa city.