Minaret half-sunken as village submerged by Kars Dam

KARS

Water in Kars Dam in Turkey’s northeast has filled to the brim, with only half of the minaret of a mosque surviving above water and a village having completely submerged, as the dam is set to irrigate 50,000 hectares of agricultural land and generate energy.

The dam, which was built to increase the agricultural production in the northeastern province of Kars, began filling with water in 2018.

The gates of the dam were opened when a 93 percent threshold was reached last year.

But when the water accumulated in the dam was withdrawn, Boğazköy and Çamçavuş villages were flooded.

After the withdrawal process was completed, the gates were closed with the arrival of spring to fill up with water again.

With the waters having flooded the village of Çamçavuş, only the minaret of the mosque has survived.

The dam is planned to store 182 million cubic meters of water and generate 9.76 million cubic meters of electricity annually.