Irrigation projects in Iraq

Iraq has a unique irrigation system since the early history, these systems arefunctioning through many irrigation projects built over `Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.Irrigation projects include several categories, which are dams, barrages, canals,drains, pumping stations, regulators, and reservoirs.There are six large dams inside Iraq, 5 are existing in Tigris basin, and one inEuphrates basin, these dams which were built since 1950’s are suffering fromseveral issues, like foundation liquefaction, seismic effects, and others.Tharthar Lake, Habbaniyah Lake, Razzaza Lake, and Southern Marshes are alsoone of the main projects in Iraq to control flood and storing excess water in some.These lakes serve in protection of the main cities during large floods.There are also many barrages on Tigris and Euphrates, some of these barrages arepart of Tharthar and Habbaniyah projects, while others serving the irrigationprojects in Mesopotamia.On Euphrates, there are several irrigation projects, where the projects upstreamFallujah city are almost small or medium projects irrigated by pumping. Then, inthe rest of Euphrates, there are Great Abu Ghraib project, Great Mussayab, HillaKifil, some small projects, and Kifil-Shinafiyah projects. Also, Hilla branch whichis the largest branch in Iraq from Euphrates, where this branch is irrigating severalirrigation projects.On Tigris basin, there are Jazeera project irrigated by pumping from Mosul Dam,Kirkuk project that is irrigated from Lesser Zab River, and Diyala are projects.Inside Mesopotamia and over Tigris reach, there are Ishaqi project, Nahrawanproject, Middle Tigris projects, Dujailah project, Dalmaj project, and Gharraf Canalprojects.In the middle of Mesopotamian plain, Main Outfall Drain was completed in 1992,this grand drain are serving around 6 million donum of farmlands.Keywords: Dams, Barrages, Irrigation canals, Iraq.