The Kut Barrage is a barrage on the

Tigris The Tigris ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the eastern of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian Desert, Syrian and Arabia ...

river, located in the modern town of Kut in Wasit Governorate,

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Technical details

It is long, high, and consists of 56 gates, each wide. The maximum discharge of the barrage is , but actual discharge has not exceeded in the last 10 years. The barrage supports a road and includes a

lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...

for boats passing up and down the Tigris. Its purpose is to maintain a sufficiently high water level in the Tigris to provide water for the Gharraf irrigation canal, which branches off the Tigris just upstream from the Kut Barrage. Before the construction of the Kut Barrage, the Gharraf canal only received water during periods of flood in the Tigris. The water level in the canal is maintained by the Gharraf Head Regulator, which was constructed at the same time as the Kut Barrage.

History

The Kut Barrage was constructed between 1934 and 1939 by the British firm

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is active ac ...

.Ruth Slavid, ''Balfour Beatty’s 75 years'', Construction News Magazine, June 1984. Construction of the barrage was carried out by 2,500 Arab and Kurdish workers, and involved the removal of of ground. For the barrage itself of concrete was used. A major flood in the Tigris in 1936 caused the building site to be flooded entirely, and led to the temporary standstill of the construction works. In 1952, were irrigated from water provided by the Gharraf Canal. Of this newly reclaimed land, was distributed to small farmers as part of a social land reform program. These farmers received per family and were required to live on the land they farmed. In 2005, repairs and maintenance works were carried out at the Kut Barrage and the Gharraf Head Regulator for a total cost of US$3 million.

Gallery

File:2019-03-28 Kut barrage Wassit Iraq Tigris.jpg File:2019-03-28 Kut barrage dam mechanism.jpg File:2019-03-28 Kut barrage dam lock.jpg

References

{{Tigris dams Tigris River Dams in Iraq Wasit Governorate Dams completed in 1939 Dams on the Tigris River 1939 establishments in Iraq Barrage