'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎159] (168/568)

IRRIGATION OF IRAK 159
new beds. No government arose that was capable of devising or
working a systematic plan of irrigation.
Between 1870 and 1914 the Turkish Government, though it was
still a long way from introducing systematic irrigation, attempted
some improvements in northern Irak, (a) It had tried to prevent
the flooding of Baghdad and its neighbourhood by means of bunds on
the Tigris, Diyaleh, and Euphrates, and had actually succeeded in
somewhat reducing the inundations in this region. (&) It had pro
cured the services of foreign engineers to check the process by which
the Hilla branch of the Euphrates was being dried up—a process
which seems to have been started by the damming of the Saqlawiyeh
canal-head lor the protection of Baghdad. On the Hindiyeh barrages
and Hilla Regulator, which were planned to adjust the distribution of
Euphrates water between the Hindiyeh and Hilla branches see below,
pp. 160-1. (c) The conversion of the Habbaniyeh basin into a reservoir
for the storage of Euphrates water had been taken in hand. The
escape-canal from Ramadiyeh had been cut, but the outlet through
which the water stored was to return from the reservoir to the river
had not been made when the present war began, (d) Regulators
had been placed at the heads of a few of the large canals taking off
from the Euphrates (e. g. the Abu Ghoreib and, apparently, the
Mahmudiyeh).
But apart from these works in northern Irak, the Turkish Govern
ment did practically nothing for the irrigation of the country. The
Arabs were left almost wholly to their own devices. The inhabitants
of each district looked after their own needs. They kept up the frail
and often-broken bunds along the river-banks they made what use
they could of the old canal-beds and dug small cuts themselves 1 ;
they built dams of earth and brushwood in order to divert water to
their fields. They helped themselves to water in the way that
seemed easiest, and their unco-ordinated and primitive work was
liable to have unforeseen and unfortunate results. They cut num
bers of small canals which opened directly on the river-channels,
thus promoting the deterioration of the river-beds and preparing the
way for ruinous spills. The cultivated land was continually exposed
to the risk either of being inundated or of losing its supply of water;
and navigation on the rivers was in places seriously affected by Arab
irrigation work.
1 Occasionally they undertook the cutting of fairly important canals. Thus
in 1911 Sir William Willcocks reported that a canal from Shamiyeh, on the
Hindiyeh branch of the Euphrates, which was to connect with the Hilla
branch at Diwanlyeh, was being undertaken by the Arabs, and, if successful
would be a valuable asset to the country.
'J