17 new dams 'needed on East Coast'

Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality has urged the building of 17 new dams on the East Coast to prevent inundation of small villages and loss of large quantities of rain water.

Mattar Saleh Al Kaabi, Director of Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality, said although it is summer now, work should start on building more dams or barriers to protect the East Coast villages located at the foot of the mountains.

"Villages like Sharm, Al Bidya and Al Qurrayah should be protected by dams or barriers as they are usually inundated whenever rain falls on the East Coast. They become inundated with the rain water flowing down the mountains which surround these villages," said Al Kaabi.

He urged the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to build seven big dams and 10 small ones along the East Coast.

"One big dam is needed north of Sharm village where houses can easily be affected by any sudden heavy rain, and three more dams should be built in Dhadna in the valleys of Asfa, Rukbi El-Rul, and Mid Dhadna," noted Al Kaabi.

Another dam should also be built to the north of Al Bidya village to stop rain water from flowing into the valleys.

"Though Al Bidya has three concrete dams in Al Wareiyah, Al Sudiyah and Ghalilah Al Khun, the village needs more dams since the area has several small valleys," he said, adding that two other big dams are needed at Wadi Al Abadelah and Wadi Wumm.

Al Kaabi said 10 small dams should also be built in Dibba city, replacing the sandy dams and barriers built by the Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality a long time ago.

There are more than 30 big valleys along the East Coast, in addition to smaller ones into which rain water flows during winter.

The 50 existing big and small dams and barriers on the East Coast are not enough to protect some mountainous villages and support the underground water storage, he said.

These dams and barriers are capable of holding more than 42 million cubic metres of rain water. They were built in valleys such as Ham, Al Wareiyah, Ghalilah Al Khun, Al Owais or Zakt, Dhadnah, Al Baseerah, Fai, Dalum, Rukbi, Safad, Thaib, Hamad, Ramuth, Mai, Al Siji, Al Hail, Laban, Ain Madhab, Al Hail, Al Sidr, Al Tawiyeen and Shi.

Of these 50 dams, 19 were built by the Private Department of President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in the first stage, and nine were in the second. Sixteen dams and barriers were built by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and six by the East Coast municipalities.

The oldest dam built in the early 1970s was set up at Siji Wadi. The Siji Wadi dam is 500 metres long and 10 metres high. It holds 1.6 million cubic metres of water.

The biggest dam was built in Fujairah in 1983 in Ham valley. The Ham dam is 2.8km long and cost around Dh 37 million. It can retain 10 million cubic metres of water.