Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station

Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station
The pump station prior to first operation
General information
Town or city	Nasiriyah
Country	Iraq
Coordinates	30°58′24″N 46°20′11″E / 30.97333°N 46.33639°E / 30.97333; 46.33639Coordinates: 30°58′24″N 46°20′11″E / 30.97333°N 46.33639°E / 30.97333; 46.33639
Construction started	1983
Completed	2009
Cost	$100 million + USD (Since 2003)
Client	Ministry of Water Resources
Design and construction
Engineer	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (From 2003-2009)

The Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station is a land drainage pumping station in Iraq 10 km southeast of Nasiriyah in the province of Dhi Qar. The station pumps farm run-off collected by the Main Outfall Drain (MOD) north of the Euphrates River in Dhi Qar and Muthanna provinces to a siphon under the Euphrates where it is then returned to the MOD and eventually discharged in the Persian Gulf. The pump station relieves water back-up and is a critical component of a larger agricultural drainage system designed to drain 1.5 million hectares of land in order to reduce soil salinity. Consisting of 12 pumps, each with a 20 m³/second (316,000 gal/min) capacity, it is the largest drainage pump in the Middle East.

In 1951, British engineer Frank Haigh developed his Haigh Report for the Iraqi government which laid out drainage infrastructure for the Mesopotamian Marshes in order to reclaim the land for agriculture. His report recommended a complex of canals, sluices and dikes on the lower portions of both the Tigris and Euphrates. In 1953, construction began on the Main Outfall Drain, also known as the Third River, which would drain water from the Central Marshes through a canal and eventually into the Persian Gulf. Construction on the Nasiriyah Drainage Pump Station, which would serve to pump the water to a siphon under the Euphrates, did not begin until 1983. A Brazilian contractor worked on the pump station until 1986 when political upheaval forced a construction halt. Construction continued in 1992, the same year the MOD was completed, but was intermittent until 1999 because of flooding and structural failures. Aside from agriculture, the MOD was viewed as a tool for Saddam Hussein to drain the Central Marshes in order to deny a refuge for Shia Muslims after the 1991 uprisings in Iraq.