Amman - The leakage problem in the Mujib Dam has been taken care of and there will be no water seepage this coming winter, a Jordan Valley Authority official reiterated this week.
Speaking at an open discussion held at the Professional Associations Council on dams in Jordan, water expert Fouad Ujailat gave assurances on the soundness of the Mujib Dam.
The dam, completed in 2003, was at full capacity - 32 million cubic metres (mcm) - when media reports about a leakage in the right embankment of the dam surfaced at the end of last year. It was discovered that the leaking water was coming from the ground to the right of the dam and not through the dam's structure itself, Ujailat said.
"The authority dug several boreholes, 10-100 metres deep, and fed them with almost 80cm of packer (plugger) connected to pipes full of water and concrete to seal the boreholes that would eventually close the leakage holes in the dam," he told The Jordan Times.
A study prepared by consultants at the request of the government indicated that the leakage has dropped from 240 litres per second to 29 litres per second.
The study notes that a leakage of no more than 70 litres per second is "internationally acceptable." Water officials had assured Prime Minister Adnan Badran that the situation is under control, during a visit to the dam late July.
The JD45 million Mujib Dam, located 100km south of Amman between the governorates of Madaba and Karak, is designed to store rainwater for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes. It provides irrigation water for the Southern Ghor farmlands, the tourist area on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, the Arab Potash Company and the Dead Sea Chemical Complex in addition to supplying Amman with potable water.
Funded by the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the Treasury, the dam was constructed by a consortium of Greek and Bosnian companies as well as Jordanian, Egyptian and German consultants. A system to monitor earthquake activities was installed below the dam.
Meanwhile, questions were raised during the discussion on the reasons behind choosing the location of the Karameh Dam, which is built on saline ground on an active crack. Ujailat responded that the authority was aware of the crack and the dam had been designed, from the outset, to overcome any technical problems the crack could cause.
As for the high salinity levels of its water, the Karameh underwent a two-month flushing process in October 2004. By opening the bottom outlet of the dam, water was gradually released into the Jordan River.
Sources at the Water Ministry previously told The Jordan Times that Karameh Dam needs to be flushed out of water around five times a year to keep salinity at acceptable levels below 6,000 parts per million.
Karameh Dam, the second largest dam in the Kingdom with a maximum capacity of 55mcm, was built to store water mainly from the Yarmouk River for the purpose of irrigating some 40,000 square kilometres of land in the Jordan Valley.
The $73 million project, completed in 1997, was jointly financed by the Treasury and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. The Kingdom has nine major water dams with a total capacity of 221mcm: Talal, Wadi Al Arab, Sharhabil, Kafrein, Wadi Shueib, Karameh, Tannour and Waleh.
Al Wihdeh Dam, currently under construction, will be the biggest dam upon completion in May 2006. The dam is designed to store 110mcm of water for agricultural, domestic and power generating purposes.
© Jordan Times 2005
