Water balance approach for assessment of different water supply conditions in Dahuk Dam

Abstract

The authority of Dahuk city decided to give the priority of the Dahuk Dam uses to tourism purpose since it was noticed that Dahuk Dam was not fulfilling the water requirement of its service area. Therefore, water balance calculation at the dam, its catchment and surrounding catchment area were necessary to evaluate and identify the problems. However, water balance needs long and sufficient hydrologic data. Since many data was not available at those regions, generating hydrologic data over a long period and filling the missing data were necessary. Then 24 scenarios with different water supply conditions were simulated. It was found that the dam was unable to support water demand for irrigation together with domestic and tourism due to water level requirement. Then, by supplying water from Khabour River and cancelling the irrigation project, the water level of the reservoir was enhanced, as shown on Scenario - 10. In addition, it was identified that Khabour water contribution should be priority of the program to survive the reservoir’s goals in case of integrated water resource management at the Dam.