Amman - Jordan has protested to Syria against what it called "violations" of the sharing agreement of the Yarmouk River water, the Jordan Times reported Sunday.

The protest was made by the Jordan Valley Authority's Secretary General Musa Jamaani during a meeting on Saturday of a technical panel affiliated with the Jordanian-Syrian Committee of the Yarmouk River Basin, the paper said.

"The violations of the water sharing agreement are unacceptable," Jamaani was quoted as telling the Syrian side.

He said that Syria was pumping more than its allocated share to water crops planted downstream of the Wihdeh Dam which was constructed on the Yaroumk River two years ago.

"Syria should know that Jordan's priority is providing water for drinking. We are cutting farmers' supplies of water by 50 per cent so that we can supply people with water to drink," Jamaani said.

The Yarmouk River is a tributary of Jordan River, originating in the southern slopes of Mount Hermon and forming a boundary between Syria and Jordan for almost 40 kilometres before becoming the border between the Hashemite Kingdom and Israel.

"The river's flow dropped from 1,200 litres per second last year to 900 litres per second currently, which is blamed on Syria's cultivation of crops on the river's banks," the Jordanian official said. (dpa)