Abstract
THE last day of 1938 was notable in the sphere of civil engineering operations by reason of the completion of an important four-year undertaking (begun in December, 1934) which has comprised the construction in Iraq of a barrage, 1,500 ft. long, across the River Tigris, and, as an adjunct, of an irrigation canal, 2¼ miles in length and 230 ft. wide, with a head regulator to control the flow of water down the Gharraff River. The object of the Government of Iraq in executing the work is to bring into cultivation extensive areas of land on both sides of the Shatt-el-Gharraff from Kut to Ur, between the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates, on the traditional site of the Garden of Eden. Previously, supplies of water have been available for the Gharraff River only during periods of flood in the Tigris; henceforward, the Kut Barrage will retain the water of the Tigris and cause it to flow at all seasons along the diversion canal into the Gharraff River. The barrage has fifty-six sluice gates, each 20 ft. wide, to control the rate of flow, while a navigation lock will enable river craft to pass the obstruction and maintain the service of boats between Bagdad and Basrah. The formation of the canal involved the excavation of 1,600,000 cubic yards of material and the employment of 2,500 Arabs and Kurds. In addition, 250,000 cubic yards of concrete were placed in the barrage. The regulator at the head, of the canal is equipped with seven sluice gates, each 20 ft. wide, and there is a small navigation lock. The constructional operations were seriously hampered in November 1936 by extensive rains, which produced the highest flood on record on the Tigris for that season of the year, and rose with such unprecedented rapidity that the works were entirely inundated and brought to a standstill. A further difficulty was the extraordinary range of temperature, which varied from freezing point in winter to 125° F. in the shade in summer. The engineers for the undertaking were Messrs. Coode, Wilson, Mitchell and Vaughan-Lee of Westminster, and the contract was entrusted to Messrs. Balfour, Beatty and Co., Ltd., of London.
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The Kut Barrage Irrigation Scheme. Nature 143, 18–19 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143018c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143018c0