Water Harvesting in Iraq: Status and Opportunities

摘要

Water harvesting in Iraq is an oldapplication with limited extent. Western Desert, Jazeera Desert and EasternValleys, are the zones were the water harvesting must be employed. Severalwater harvesting dams in Western Desert had built since 1970s, these dams areintended to provide habitat and recharge of groundwater resources. There islimited opportunity to recharge groundwater in Jazeera area due to existence ofgypsum layers. Regarding Eastern Valleys, the experience of building waterharvesting dams on the valleys manifested that sediments accumulation is themain obstacle to adapt this solution. Hemrin Hills considered as one of themost intensively eroded areas in Iraq, so, soil conservation and waterharvesting development is important. Many small dams were built in mountainouszone in the last two decades, some are important for agriculture expansion, butthere is need to evaluate the effects on large dams feeding. North-Easternparts of Jordan, which has similar natural conditions of Northern Desert, hadpresent a successful example of water harvesting development.