Muscat: A massive clean-up got under way in towns across north Oman as the effects of an unprecedented wet weather spell that claimed a total of 21 lives and forced the evacuation of hundreds of others, finally began to peter out on Saturday.
The Director General of Meteorology and Air Navigation announced that the ridge of low pressure that held sway for a record 10 days over northern governorates of the Sultanate has begun to dissipate. The break in the wet weather allowed municipal bodies to mobilise their clean-up machinery to help clear roads of standing water and debris deposited by days of thundershowers and torrential rains.
At the same time, authorities launched a comprehensive survey of dams to assess their soundness in the face of concerns that their integrity may have been compromised by the mammoth volumes of floodwater they accumulated over the past several days. The survey was spearheaded by the Minister of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, Ahmad Bin Abdullah Al Shuhi, who on Friday led a team of his senior colleagues on a tour of Wadi Dayqah dam – the country’s largest dam and the subject of recent rumours about its soundness.
Sluice gates feeding the downstream channel have now been opened to discharge water from its reservoir, which nearly reached its peak capacity of 100 million cubic metres last week. The minister also visited Al Khoudh Dam in the capital region and issued instructions for a controlled discharge keeping in mind the safety of villages located downstream.
Accompanied by senior ministry colleagues, Al Shuhi toured a number of areas along the North and South Batinah coasts, where wadis-turned-raging-torrents have wrecked a number of utility projects being undertaken by the ministry in these parts. He also issued orders for public complaints to be swiftly addressed, Oman News Agency stated.
