The environmental impact assessment for Bastora dam

Dams have been used for thousands of years to regulate river flows and ensure adequate supply of water during dry periods. In the future, as population increase and water consumption rises, many people believe there will be a need for more dams. The main objectives of the EIA study of the Bastora dam was to assess/evaluate the potential impacts of the dam project (BDIP) on the ecology, and socio-economics/health status of the people. The study comprises plenty of field and data collection in order to evaluate environment impacts of dams. This study project has diverted part of the peak flow of the Bastora stream into a 200 million m3 capacity of stream storage reservoir. The main purpose of the stored water will be to irrigate 4,000 ha out of the 11,000 ha of the total land downstream to grow crops and fruit trees. In the study area, ground water is an essential input to agricultural, environmental, health, domestic and development, especially in the rural area. According to a new survey about 60% of water demand is met by numerous deep wells dispersed throughout the urban and suburban areas, while about 40 % is supplied from the Greater Zab River by pumping from Ifraz station to the treatment plant near Erbil. According to the FAO 2004 well depths have only recently increased and most new wells have been drilled to a depth exceeding 100 m. Currently, there may be no more than 1,000 operational deep wells in the entire district of Erbil. It may be concluded that the total amount of exploitable groundwater does not exceed 2.5 m3 /s. The population of the study area is about 60,000 people with a population density of about 450 / km 2 . The mean annual rainfall ranges from 260 mm to 515 mm. The mean annual temperature in the summer exceeds 35oC and in winter ranges from 9 oC to 15oC. In conclusion, the positive impacts are significantly higher than negative impacts and because this dam is considered a developing part of this area. Thus, reworking on this dam is highly recommended. Keywords Environmental impact assessment, dams, watershed, ecology and social impact, reservoir