Qhafor Ameen Hamasur

Chapter One
Chapter One
Introduction
Introduction
1-1 Preface
Dam is one of the most important major structures which supplies services in
several aspects, such as irrigation, electric power, tourism, etc. It is also one of
those projects that retends water and uses it for various purposes. Darband –
Basara gorge is, therefore, selected for this purpose which lies on Basara stream
near Delaizha village, Fig(1-1).
The selection of the mentioned location is due to suitability of the topography,
absence of any big water project on the Basara stream and the catchment’s area
is within the Kurdistan region, this means that there is no any danger upon the
project via neighboring countries in the future. It gives also a great benefit in
irrigating thousands of hectares of agricultural area of Garmian – district which is
characterized by the lack of water in the summer season.
In order to assess the suitability of the location of the proposed dam, three
surface sections and three boreholes along Basara stream were selected,
Fig(1-2) and the rock masses at each site were evaluated according to the most
new and updated rock mass classification systems.
1-2 Location of the study area
The study area is located at Sulaimani district, Kurdistan region-NE Iraq,
about 25 km to the southwest of Sulaimani city and lies between latitudes 35°
25΄ 37˝ & 35° 31΄ 02˝ N and longitudes 45° 09΄ 10˝ & 45° 16΄ 04˝ E, Fig(1-2).
1-3 Previous studies
There are two engineering studies about the proposed Basara dam site, one
of them by Agrocomplet consulting engineers company (Bullgarian company) in
the year 1979(unavailable data).The second study was by "ITSC" - British
company which proposed 46.5m to be the maximum height of the dam (the
maximum water level with this height corresponds to an elevation of 716.5m
above sea level) and concluded that the total water volume in the reservoir is
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