Aburagi Dam

Aburagi Dam is a dam built upstream on the class-B Imagawa River, located in the town of Soeda, in the Tagawa District of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. It is a gravity dam made of concrete, 54.6 meters in height. The dam is owned at a prefectural level but managed by the Tagawa Public Works Office in Fukuoka Prefecture. An auxiliary multi-purpose dam, Aburagi Dam provides flood control for the Imagawa River and agricultural irrigation for the Tagawa District, as well as general irrigation for Kitakyūshū and the Miyako District. It is also a major supplier of water to Kitakyūshū. The reservoir created by the dam remains unnamed, despite having been completed nearly 40 years ago.

The Imagawa River is a medium-sized, class-B river covering 120.0 square kilometers, extending 38.7 kilometers in length. It is located in the Buzen district of Fukuoka Prefecture, and is representative of other class-B rivers like the Murasakigawa River and Haraigawa River. The source of the river is at the base of a sightseeing area—Mount Hiko—which is located in Yaba-Hita-Hikosan Quasi-National Park. The river flows northeast, pouring into the Suonada Sound near the city of Yukihashi. The watershed crosses the city of Yukihashi, as well as the Kyoto District's towns of Kanda and Miyako and the Tagawa District's town of Soeda and Aka village, and serves as an important water source. The dam is built on the upper reach of the river at the town of Soeda and the former village of Tsuno.

After the (then-government managed) Yawata Works steel company commenced operations in the Kitakyūshū area, the heavy chemical industry rapidly began the flourish, and the local population increased. The supply of water established during the Meiji period had become insufficient, leading Yawata Works to construct several dams to supply municipal water, such as the Kawachi Dam. This area experiences Setonaikai climate patterns, with low annual rainfall, and frequently faces water shortages; the expansion of the Kitakyūshū Industrial Zone further worsened these water shortages. The river basin was once part of the Ogasawara clan's Kokura Domain, a grain producing region where some 150,000 units of grain were p

Dam data from Wikidata (CC0) plus curated additions. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).