The Birecik Dam, one of the 21 dams of the Southeastern Anatolia Project

Southeastern Anatolia Project

The Southeastern Anatolia Project is a multi-sector integrated regional development project based on the concept of sustainable development for the 9 million people living in the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey...

 of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, is located on the Euphrates River 60 km (37.3 mi) downstream of Atatürk Dam

Atatürk Dam

The Atatürk Dam , originally the Karababa Dam, is a zoned rock-fill dam with a central core on the Euphrates River on the border of Adıyaman Province and Şanlıurfa Province in Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey...

 and 8 km (5 mi) upstream of Birecik

Birecik

Birecik , also formerly known as Bir and during the Crusades as Bile, is a town and district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey, on the River Euphrates....

 town 80 km (49.7 mi) west of Province of Şanlıurfa

Sanliurfa Province

Şanlıurfa Province or simply Urfa Province is a province in Southeast Anatolia, Turkey. The city of Şanlıurfa is the capital of the province which bears its name. The population is 1,663,371 ....

 in the southeastern region of Turkey

Southeastern Anatolia Region

Southeastern Anatolia Region is one of Turkey's seven census-defined geographical regions . It is bordered by the Mediterranean Region to the west, the Eastern Anatolia Region to the north, Syria to the south, and Iraq to the southeast.-Provinces:...

. It was purposed for irrigation

Irrigation

Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

 and energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

 production. There is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power

Electric power

Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...

 plant, established in 2001, at the dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

, with a power output of 672MW (six facilities at 112 MW each) can generate an average of 2.5 billion kWh per year. The Birecik dam is a structure constituted of a concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 gravity and clay core sandgravel fill with a height of 62.5 m (205.1 ft) from the foundation. The total catchment area is 92700 ha (357.9 sq mi). The Birecik project will be realized under the status of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT

Bot

Bot or BOT may refer to:-Computing:* Bot, another also name for a Web crawler* Bots , an open-source EDI software* BOTS, a computer game* Internet bot, a computer program that does automated tasks...

) model.

External links

• www.un.org.tr/undp/Gap.htm - United Nations Southeast Anatolia Sustainable Human Development Program (GAP)
• www.gapturkiye.gen.tr/english/current.html Current status of GAP as of June 2000
• www.ecgd.gov.uk Data sheet
• www.gap.gov.tr - Official GAP web site