Samarra Barrage
Barrage, 7,000 m3/s maximum discharge through 17 gated openings; 87 MW in 14 units in Iraq.
Operational
The record
- Country
- Iraq
- Location
- Samarra
- Coordinates
- 34.197, 43.856
- Technology
- Barrage
- Capacity
- 7,000 m3/s maximum discharge through 17 gated openings; 87 MW in 14 units
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Ministry of Water Resources
- Contractor
- Zueblin (civil works); Ransomes and Rapier (hydro-mechanical works)
- Operator
- Ministry of Water Resources
- Finance
- Development Board (oil revenues)
- Award or start year
- 1953
- Commissioned
- 1956-04
Record last checked 2026-09-18.
History
- 1953
works started under the Development Board
- 1956-04
barrage opened and floodwater first passed to the Tharthar depression
- 1971
the 87 MW power station opened
Sources
6 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: Barrages, Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 9(4) 2019, pp. 153-167. diva-portal.org.
- Samarra Barrage is the key control structure of the Tharthar project.
- It is 252 m long with 17 openings of 12 m by 12 m and a maximum discharge of 7,000 m3/s.
- A hydropower plant of 14 units with a maximum generation of 87 MW sits on the right bank and opened in 1971. Four irrigation openings of 2.5 m diameter feed the main canal of the Ishaqi scheme.
- Mukhalad Abdullah, Nadhir Al-Ansari and Jan Laue, Water Resources Projects in Iraq, Reservoirs in The Natural Depressions, Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 9(4) 2019, pp. 137-152. 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 German company Zueblin carried out the structure and the British company Ransomes and Rapier the hydro-mechanical works; works started in 1953 and the project opened on 16 April 1956.