Identity, Conflict and Cooperation in International River Systems by Jack Kalpakian

Author:Jack Kalpakian [Kalpakian, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351156103
Google: 4fdADwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 36984215
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2003-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Iraqi Water Development Programs

Like Syria, Iraq enjoys some rain. It is able to cultivate some 11.5-40 million hectares of land a year. The reason behind this disparity lies in the contradictory and confusing pile of statistics on Iraq. All told, Iraq probably has some 2.77 million hectares under irrigated cultivation.31 As stated earlier, Iraq was fortunate to inherit some operational ancient waterworks — Lake Habbaniya and Lake Abu Dibbis. In ancient times, these two lakes were modified for flood control and their waters were used during the dry season; they remain in working order storing some 46 cubic kilometers of water. The Naharawan Canal and the Nimrod Dam are long gone, but the despotates that created them seem to remain. Iraq's modern hydrological infrastructure dates from 1911-1914, when the Ottoman Empire undertook the construction of the Hindiya Barrage on the Euphrates. Over the decades a series of other barrages followed. The Hindiya, Abu Dibbis, Ramadi, and Falluja barrages impede, divert, and regulate the Euphrates; the Kut and Samarra barrages carry out the same tasks on the Tigris. The Diyalah Barrage diverts the small Tigris tributary's waters for irrigation projects. Completed in 1985, the Falluja Barrage is the newest barrage in Iraq. Another important Iraqi non-dam water project is the Lake Tharthar water storage facility. In 1950, Lake Tharthar was created artificially from the Tharthar depression. It can store 30 cubic kilometers of water in a lake under a surface area of 2,700 square kilometers. Lake Tharthar links the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and helps Iraq compensate Euphrates water deficits with surpluses from the flood-prone Tigris. With every passing year, Iraq is resorting to the Tigris more every year in order to compensate the shortages it is facing on the Euphrates. These shortages are a direct consequence of Syria's and Turkey's need to fill their respective reservoirs. Iraq is following the hydrological script wished for by Ankara.32 Iraq's dams are few and some were still incomplete by the mid-1990s.

Table 4.3 Iraqi Dams, Operational and Proposed

Name/River Storage kms3 Installed MW Year Irrig. area (ha)

Saddam Dam/Tigris 10.7 750 MW 1994 250,000

Darbandikhan/ Diyalah 3.0-5.0 NA 1961 NA

Dukan/Lesser Zab 0.63-0.75 400 MW 1959 NA

Qadisiyah/Euphrates NA 600 MW By 1994 NA

Dibbis/Lesser Zab NA NA 1994 NA

Source: Kliot, p. 121.

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