Main Outfall Drain
Agricultural drainage conveyance, 565 km long, draining about 6 million dunams; 98 m3/s in the northern sector, 200 m3/s in the middle sector and 300 m3/s in the southern sector; pumping station of twelve units at 20 m3/s each in Iraq.
The record
- Country
- Iraq
- Location
- —
- Coordinates
- 31.142, 45.410
- Technology
- Agricultural drainage conveyance
- Capacity
- 565 km long, draining about 6 million dunams; 98 m3/s in the northern sector, 200 m3/s in the middle sector and 300 m3/s in the southern sector; pumping station of twelve units at 20 m3/s each
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Ministry of Water Resources
- Contractor
- Soviet contractors on the middle sector; Philipp Holzmann and Polensky on the southern sector; Mendes of Brazil on the Euphrates siphon and pumping station; Iraqi contractors on the northern sector
- Operator
- Ministry of Water Resources
- Finance
- Government of Iraq
- Award or start year
- 1973
- Commissioned
- 1992
Record last checked 2026-09-18.
History
- 1952
TAMS proposed the drain alignment
- 1973
Soviet contractors began excavating the 156 km middle sector
- 1977
middle sector excavation completed
- 1986
southern sector completed
- 1992
northern sector completed and the drain finished
- 2002
construction of the MOD pumping station started
- 2008
MOD pumping station opened with twelve units of 20 m3/s
- 2012
emergency escape completed at km 172
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 in Iraq, Main Drains, Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 9(4) 2019, pp. 275-282. 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.
The Main Outfall Drain is the backbone of drainage in the Mesopotamian plain, running 565 km from the end of the Ishaqi project to Shatt al-Basra and draining an estimated 6 million dunams. TAMS of the United States proposed the alignment in 1952. Soviet companies excavated the 156 km middle sector from 1973 to 1977; Philipp Holzmann and Polensky built the southern sector, completed in 1986; Mendes of Brazil began the Euphrates siphon and pumping station in 1984 and left in 1990 without finishing; Iraqi companies completed the northern sector and expanded the middle sector in 1992. Sector lengths and discharges are 206 km at 98 m3/s, 187 km at 200 m3/s and 172 km at 300 m3/s. The MOD pumping station, described as the largest in Iraq, was started in 2002 and opened in 2008 with twelve units of 20 m3/s each. The Shatt al-Basra regulator at the downstream end was completed in 1973 and has been out of service since 2003.