The Hindiya Barrage is a barrage on the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...

south of the town of

Musayyib Musayyib ( ar, المسيب) is an increasing majority Shia Arab town in the Babil Province, Iraq. As of 2018, its population was 57,300. Musayyib sits on both the east and west banks of the Euphrates River, which splits into the Hindiya and Hill ...

Babil Governorate Babil Governorate or Babylon Province ( ar, محافظة بابل ''Muḥāfaẓa Bābil'') is a governorate in central Iraq. It has an area of , with an estimated population of 2,065,042 people in 2018. The provincial capital is the city of Hill ...

of Iraq. Located north of the Al-Hindiya District, it was designed by British civil engineer

William Willcocks Sir William Willcocks (27 September 1852 in India – 28 July 1932 in Cairo, Egypt) was a British civil engineer during the high point of the British Empire. He was an irrigation engineer who proposed and built the first Aswan Dam, the scal ...

in response to the

silting up Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

of the Hillah branch of the Euphrates. Construction of the dam, with a length of over , lasted between 1911 and 1913. Between 1984 and 1989, a new dam was built several kilometres upstream as a replacement for the Hindiya Barrage.

Background and planning

Until 1875, the Euphrates split into two channels south of the town of Musayyib; the western Hindiya branch and the eastern Hillah branch. Due to changes in the water management of the wider

Tigris–Euphrates river system The Tigris–Euphrates river system is a large river system in Western Asia which discharges into the Persian Gulf. Its principal rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates along with smaller tributaries. From their sources and upper courses in the mou ...

in 1875, severe floodings of the Euphrates downstream from Fallujah occurred. As a result of these floodings, discharge into the lower Hindiya branch increased and the Hillah branch started to silt up. In 1909, discharge into the Hillah branch had been reduced to per second, compared to per second 50 years earlier. Because the town of

Hillah Hillah ( ar, ٱلْحِلَّة ''al-Ḥillah''), also spelled Hilla, is a city in central Iraq on the Hilla branch of the Euphrates River, south of Baghdad. The population is estimated at 364,700 in 1998. It is the capital of Babylon Province a ...

is located on the Hillah branch of the Euphrates and depends on its waters for agriculture, a rubble embankment dam was constructed in the Hindiya branch to raise the water level of the Euphrates and increase the discharge into the Hillah branch. However, silting up of the Hillah branch continued and the dam was gradually being swept away by the continually increasing Euphrates discharge into the Hindiya branch. In 1908, the Ottoman government invited contractors to build a new dam based on revolutionary plans by a French engineer, but no company accepted the assignment. After the

Young Turk Revolution The Young Turk Revolution (July 1908) was a constitutionalist revolution in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), an organization of the Young Turks movement, forced Sultan Abdul Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Consti ...

and the restructuring of the Ottoman government in 1908, British civil engineer

, who had won recognition for his work on the

Aswan Low Dam The Aswan Low Dam or Old Aswan Dam is a gravity masonry buttress dam on the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. The dam was built at the former first cataract of the Nile, and is located about 1000 km up-river and 690 km (direct distance) sou ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, was tasked with the mapping of lower Iraq and the preparation of large-scale

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

projects on both the Euphrates and the

Tigris The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...

. Willcocks suggested to use the depressions of

Habbaniyah Al Habbaniyah or Habbaniya ( ar, ٱلْحَبَّانِيَّة, ''al-Ḥabbānīyah'') is a city 85 km (53 mi) west of Baghdad in Al-Anbar Province, in central Iraq. A military airfield, RAF Habbaniya, was the site of a battle in 1941, during Wor ...

and Abu Dibis, which he had recognised during his survey, as reservoirs for the excess floodwaters of the Euphrates, as well as to reconstruct the Hindiya Barrage so that the land around Hillah could be used for irrigated agriculture. Only the Hindiya Barrage would be completed before the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Construction

The Hindiya Barrage was constructed from 1911 to 1913, upstream from the old dam and next to the actual bed of the Hindiya branch. A new river bed leading up to and from the barrage was excavated and inundated after completion of the dam, and the old river bed was closed off by dams. Furthermore, because the barrage was also located upstream from the headwater of the Hillah branch, a new canal and headwater were excavated as well. The work was supervised by Willcocks and carried out by British engineering contractor John Jackson. The barrage is over long and has 36 openings that are each wide. It includes a

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

for the passage of boats. The dam was upgraded in 1927. After the completion of the Hindiya Barrage, the remains of the old Ottoman dam were left in place, even though they inhibited ships to proceed further upstream, because it was feared that the new barrage could not fulfill its function. Apart from supplying water to the Hillah branch, the Hindiyah Barrage also supplies two other canals that run parallel and on either side of the Hindiya branch and are called the Beni Hasan and Kifil.

File:JemalPasha.jpg File:1911 سده الهندية 03.jpg File:1911 سده الهندية 02.jpg File:1911 سده الهندية 01.jpg

New barrage

Between 1984 and 1989, a China State Construction Engineering built a new barrage closer to Musayyib to replace the old Hindiya Barrage at a cost of US$240 million. This new project included a hydroelectric power station, locks, a

fish ladder A fish ladder, also known as a fishway, fish pass, fish steps, or fish cannon is a structure on or around artificial and natural barriers (such as dams, locks and waterfalls) to facilitate diadromous fishes' natural migration as well as move ...

and six new bridges over the Euphrates.

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{Euphrates dams Babil Governorate Dams in Iraq Dams on the Euphrates River Dams completed in 1913 1913 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Crossings of the Euphrates India–Iraq relations