Oman’s tallest dam project set for July 2024 completion

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Work on a major flood protection scheme is making headway overlooking Salalah City in Dhofar Governorate.

When completed by around July 2024, the soaring dam structure will help secure key economic installations, notably the Port of Salalah, Salalah Free Zone and Raysut Industrial City, from severe flooding of the kind that ravaged parts of the governorate in recent years.

Well-known civil construction firm AZ Engineers & Partners LLC is constructing the project at a cost of RO 23.903 million on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources.

The centrepiece is a 386-metre-long dam structure that spans Wadi Adawnib, the biggest of three wadis that crisscross the Salalah Plain before flowing into the Arabian Sea.

An award for the construction of Al Adawnib Flood Protection System was announced in 2020, two years after Mekunu — one of the deadliest tropical cyclones to sweep over southern Oman and neighbouring Yemen — devastated swathes of Dhofar Governorate.

Besides wrecking roads, civil infrastructure, hotels and farms, a deluge of floodwater and silt also left operations at Port of Salalah impacted for several months.

Significantly, Wadi Adawnib Dam will rank among the largest dam structures in the Sultanate of Oman when it is fully operational next year.

In terms of its height however, it will surpass Wadi Daqyah Dam in Muscat Governorate — presently the nation’s largest dam in terms of reservoir capacity.

“The intake tower of the Wadi Adawnib Dam will be the second tallest concrete structure in the Sultanate of Oman, the tallest structure currently being the minarets of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, which stand at an imposing 70 metres,” said Syed Azhar Ali, Director of AZ Engineers & Partners LLC.

Also as part of the project scope, AZ Engineers is constructing a control room, spillway and an over 300m long diversion culvert. Given the site’s proximity to Salalah City, the reservoir is expected to become a tourist attraction.

To this end, the contractor will develop a public garden setting, while Dhofar Municipality mulls other initiatives to enhance the site’s overall appeal.

Separately, another Omani contractor is undertaking the construction of a flood protection dam spanning Wadi Annar that also cuts through Salalah en route to the sea.

As part of its remit, the contractor is also streamlining the route of the wadi with the goal to divert floodwaters away from vital economic infrastructure.

Functioning in conjunction, the two flood protection systems spanning Wadi Adawnib and Annar will help mitigate runoffs downstream and steer floodwaters away from the port and other projects nearby.

An excellent grade contractor in Oman for over 20 years, AZ Engineers has undertaken a sizable portfolio of prestigious civilian projects in the Sultanate of Oman and elsewhere in the region including Bahrain, Iraq and Libya.

They have completed over 100 projects including a total of over 70 bridge structures, several Integrated Tourism Complexes, and road projects, notably the Bidbid-Sur Expressway project as a structures expert subcontractor, covering all four sections of Oman’s biggest infrastructure project to date.