'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎163] (172/568)

IRRIGATION OF IRAK 163
poirtpp^lM-").'™ 88 " 011 dUri ° g the ,OW SeaSOn ( oom P are tMs
The amount of water which it would be possible to store in reser-
voirs near the heads of the river-deltas is estimated at 18 milliards
of eiibic metres. Much would be lost by evaporation, but it is
elieved that 12 milliards of cubic metres would be available for
irrigation purposes.
Nevertheless, in case different parts of the river-basins were
administered by different governments, and if irrigation works on a
large scale were carried out in upper Mesopotamia or in the basins
of the upper Euphrates and Tigris, it might be necessary for the
administration which controlled the Irak system to have an agree-
Iw if ^ ft distribution of water with the authorities who
controlled the supply higher up.
l ^ £ ' S f at t
l j William Willcocks suggested a point below Felluieh near
Rnt^riqffi fi. aS a suitable site for a barrage.
But in 1916, as the result of further study of the river-bed in this
neighbourhood, he expressed a preference for a point near the head
of the Saqlawiyeh canal upstream of Fellujeh ; there is here an out-
c i 0 P of limestone m the bed of the Euphrates which would give
a solid foundation. The Habbaniyeh escape-canal would take off
7n 19n X W e ir arra ^ a i? d int0 the Habb aniyeh depression.
1911 Sir William Willcocks did not contemplate as part of his
immediate programme the storage of Euphrates water, being con
cerned only with the prevention of excessive floods. He intended
therefore for the present to use the Habbaniyeh and Abu Dibis
depressions (which were to be connected by a cut) merelv as escaues
though he looked forward to their eventual use as reservoirs. Subse
quently it appeared that the Habbaniyeh basin was probably large
al6X0688 flood - water the Euphrates, afd
AKnu-u- as a reservoir ^ the connecting cut to the
Abu Dibis basin was given up, and, as has already been said (p. 159)
it was decided to make an outlet from the north-east end of
Habbamyeh to the Euphrates above Saqlawiyeh
Proposed Barrage and Escape at Delta.-Sir
Wiiham Willcocks has proposed a main and a subsidiary barrage on
e Tigris 10 miles below Samarra and just below the head of the
Dujeil canal. He did not include an escape for the Tigris in his
programme of 1911, as the expense of such a work would have long
remained beyond the means of the Turkish Government. Instead
he suggested a partial insurance against Tigris floods in a scheme
noticed below. But m 1916 he pointed out that in the desert