MUSCAT -- The government is putting in place a comprehensive flood control system for Salalah aimed at protecting the city from the kind of devastation wreaked by cyclonic storms more than four years ago.
Envisaged is an elaborate flood protection system involving the construction of storage and interceptor guard dams, levees, bridges, embankments, culverts and drainage channels covering the length of the Salalah Plain. The system will be implemented in three stages, with work on first phase due to commence early next year.
The Salalah Plain has periodically experienced high-intensity cyclonic storms of the kind that hit the city in 1977 and more recently in 2002. Damage to urban property, agricultural and civic infrastructure has been extensive, while some lives have been lost as well. A number of tourist attractions, including popular springs and parkland areas, were also hit by flood waters.
According to officials, a spell of heavy rains usually brings a torrent of flood water gushing down Salalah's jabals into three main wadis Jarziz, Sumr and Sahalnawt which form the principal natural drainage courses.
However, encroachments in some places along the course of the wadis tend to impede the flow, causing serious drainage congestion and consequently leading to periodic flooding.
Keen to mitigate the effects of the cyclonic storms, the Office of the Minister of State and Governor of Dhofar-Dhofar Municipality commissioned a detailed study for an effective control, recharge and drainage system for Salalah. The study, carried out by well-known engineering consultancy firm Consulting Engineering Services LLC (CES), encompassed the area stretching from Raysut in the west to Mamurah in the east, and from the coastline extending up to the foot of the jabals. Other areas prone to flooding in the vicinity of Wadi Arzat and Wadi Adawnib were covered as well.
By Conrad Prabhu
© Oman Daily Observer 2006
