The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries Wealth and Water Resources is monitoring all the dams in governorates for their periodic maintenance, and ensuring their safety, efficiency, and operation.
But the recent torrential rains had been requiring extra attention.Engineer Ali bin Muhammad Al Abri, Under-Secretary of the Ministry for Water Resources, visited Wadi Ahin Dam in the Wilayat of Saham in the North Al Batinah Governorate, accompanied by the Governor of North Al Batinah, and a number of officials, to inspect the damage as a result of rainfall experienced last week in Oman. The visit was also to meet with the shaikhs and the people of Saham to listen to their proposals and recommendations on the maintenance of the dam. They also visited a number of dams in Al Batinah North.
The focus was on the impact rain of the ground recharge dam on Wadi Ahin. The ministry extended its sincere gratitude and appreciation to the public and to those who have been monitoring the dam. The existing dam in Wadi Ahin was set up in 1994 to improve and increase groundwater recharge water level and make it a significant resource available for agricultural use.
According to the Ministry, the dam’s storage capacity is 6.8 million metres. The maximum discharge of the spillway is about 5,600 cubic meters per second. It is equipped with five water drainage gates. The average rainfall in the Wadi Ahin watershed on April 16 had reached 155 mm, and this resulted in waterflow during the same day at about 18 million cubic meters, which exceeded the storage capacity of the dam, and had led to a deviation in the course of the wadi.
The main cause of water flooding resulted in damage to the dam spillway with a length of 30 meters, which constitutes 0.5 per cent of the total length of the dam. As for the rest of its parts, they operate normally, retaining large quantities of water amounting to approximately 4.76 million cubic meters, which constitutes 70 per cent of its total storage capacity.
Meanwhile, roads had also been impacted by the previous weather condition in some of the governorates. Wadi Halfin is the longest valley in Oman with a length of over 340 km. It brings together wadis from Al Dakhliya and Al Sharqiyah, Wadi of Halfin, Al Ma'aden, Al Hijri and many more small wadis. All these wadis head towards Mahout. As a result of the impact on some of the roads in the Wilayat of Mahout, an alternative dirt road was opened instead of the Mahout-Shannah road linking the Mudairah area to Wadi Al Sail to the triangle of the road leading to the Shannah region and the Al Sharqiyah South Governorate.
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