 Dam Building
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Completion date:
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December 2002
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This construction, of a series of small recharge dams in the Northern Emirates,
took two years to complete. The recharge dams, although relatively small in height,
were designed to capture the limited, though intense rainfall that usually falls
in the Northern Emirates from November to April. Constructed using screened, graded
rock fill, they also have a protection layer of large boulders on the exposed faces.
Recharge dams are designed to intercept flood flows in wadis, which would otherwise
run to waste in the sea or inland into the desert. Water is released at a reduced
rate of flow often through culverts in the dam and infiltrates the ground water
aquifer beyond the dams in controlled flow. This recharged water moves gradually
in the aquifer to replenish boreholes downstream of the dams.
These dams have been instrumental in providing much needed support to isolated communities
where the capture and controlled release of rainwater has led to an increase in
groundwater levels; effectively replenishing underground sources of fresh water
that had been rapidly exhausted by modern extraction methods of boreholes
and electric pumps.
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