Sweet Water Canal Repair and Mantainance

Rehabilitate the sweet water canal between Bada and Basra. Remove silt from key sections of the channel. Embankment restoration. Repairs to existing concrete canal lining (grouting, panel replacement joint repair). Slope repairs and paving of existing earthen canal. Repair two pump stations.

High salinity levels in the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers make the use of this water for potable treatment prohibitively expensive. As such, the raw water which supplies Basra and its environs flows through an open channel, 238 km long. Abstraction occurs at the Bada Tail Regulator along the Garaph River at Shatra. 142 kilometers of the canal are concrete lined, and the remaining 96 kilometers are earth. There are evaporative and seepage losses along the way, and saline water infiltrates into the water supply. Repairing the pumping stations and rehabilitating the concrete portion of the canal, while lining the (currently earthen) balance, would increase raw water flows at Basra from 7.8 CMS to 13.1 CMS. In addition to the primary structures listed below, the raw water system contains 195 separate structures (side escapes, crossings, culverts, bridges and siphons). Two parallel canals from the reservoirs to the R0 (R-zero) Pumping Station at kilometer 238.00. From R0, water is distributed to various treatment plants within the Basra region. Ministry of Water Resources jurisdiction stops just upstream of R0. Head Regulator – E47.80470, N30.55528 Pumping Station Number 01 – E46.33606, N30.97511 at Kilometer 061.50 Pumping Station Number 02 – E47.12930, N30.71542 at Kilometer 163.00 Primary Reservoirs – 750,000 Cubic Meters at Kilometer 232.00 Specific problems identified include the following: 1. Breaches and washing of the canal banks at numerous locations between Kilometer 165 and Kilometer 238 due to the presence of weak soils within the Rumaila oil fields. 2. Increasing occurrences of pump and motor failures at PS 1 and PS 2. 3. High water loss in unlined sections. 4. Erosion and vegetation growth along the canal banks. 5. Siltation of the channel and reservoirs. 6. Sluice gates at the headworks are not operational, allowing excess vegetation to pass unchecked into PS 1 and into the inlet sumps. 7. Sluice gates at the reservoirs are not operational due to excessive siltation.

Rehabilitate the sweet water canal between Bada and Basra.