Dokan Dam
Dam and hydroelectric scheme, 6.8 km3 reservoir (6.1 km3 live); 400 MW in five Francis units of 80 MW in Iraq.
The record
- Country
- Iraq
- Location
- Dokan
- Coordinates
- 35.954, 44.953
- Technology
- Dam and hydroelectric scheme
- Capacity
- 6.8 km3 reservoir (6.1 km3 live); 400 MW in five Francis units of 80 MW
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Ministry of Water Resources
- Contractor
- Dumez-Ballot
- Operator
- Ministry of Water Resources
- Finance
- Development Board (oil revenues)
- Award or start year
- 1952
- Commissioned
- 1959-06
Record last checked 2026-09-18.
History
- 1952
Binnie and Partners report submitted to the Development Board
- 1959-06
dam completed
- 1975
hydroelectric plant works started
- 1979
five Francis units of 80 MW completed
- 1980
left inspection tunnel concrete lining completed after a collapse
- 2014
bathymetric survey measured 209 million m3 of siltation
Sources
2 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- Mukhalad Abdullah, Nadhir Al-Ansari and Jan Laue, Water Resources Projects: Large Storage Dams, Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 9(4) 2019, pp. 109-135. diva-portal.org.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
Dokan is the first dam built in Iraq in the modern era and the only large concrete arch dam in the country, on the Lesser Zab and feeding the Kirkuk irrigation scheme with Dibis Barrage. Binnie and Partners reported in 1952 for the Development Board; the construction contract went to the French company Dumez-Ballot; the dam was completed in June 1959. Body 116 m tall with a crest length of 345 m and a radius of curvature of 120 m; highest operating level 511 m a.s.l. impounding 6.8 billion m3 over 270 km2, of which 6.1 billion m3 live. Hydroelectric works started in 1975 with five Francis units of 80 MW each and were completed in 1979. A 2014 bathymetric survey measured 209 million m3 of siltation with an annual rate of 3.8 million m3.