Muscat: Oman’s authorities sought to quell rumours that the country’s biggest dam, now holding back a capacity 100 million cubic metres of water after more than a week of torrential rains, is in imminent danger.
The Wadi Dayqah dam, spanning one of north Oman’s biggest wadis, is located in the Quriyat district of Muscat Governorate. Formally inaugurated just over a year ago, the dam — which is also a popular tourist attraction – was shut in March this year for routine maintenance.
But with floodwaters now reaching its crest following incessant rains in the upstream catchment areas, local residents have been panicked by rumours — dismissed as baseless by authorities — that an evacuation had been ordered of villages located downstream of the structure.
On Thursday, the Aviation Wing of the Royal Oman Police dispatched a helicopter to conduct an aerial survey of the dam structure and the adjacent reservoir that currently holds 99.5 million cubic metres of water, near its peak capacity of 100 million cubic metres. Officials from the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, which built the dam three years ago, have also visited the area to reassure villagers that the dam was designed to hold back such enormous amounts of floodwater. Any surplus volumes, they stressed, would simply spill over the dam and flow downstream eventually as runoff into the sea.
The local Arabic daily, Oman, quoted the Ministry’s chief hydrologist, Khalid Bin Salim Al Hooti, as saying: “I would like to reassure everyone that the dam is in good condition and there is no risk whatsoever from the fact that it now filled with water. We have an expert team working round-the-clock at the dam site. Regular updates are also being provided to an operations team that is monitoring water levels at all dams around the country.”
