Minister denies opening of dam drain system on Thursday


28-10-2018 03:01 PM

Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Minister of Water and Irrigation Ra'ed Abu al-Soud had denied as "baseless" what has been circulating on social media platforms that the flashfloods which claimed the lives of 21 picnickers in the Dead Sea region on Thursday were caused by the opening of the drain system of a nearby dam.

The minister said the Zarqa- Ma'in Dam, built last year, was totally empty of water the day before the tragic incident, adding that Thursday's and Friday's rainfall added 400,000 cubic meters of water to the dam while its overall capacity is 2 million cubic feet.

Speaking at a meeting for an ad hoc committee formed to probe the circumstances of Thursday's incident, the minister explained that the dam is relatively a small one and doesn't have spillways but only a 500mm pipe used on demand to water farmland down the valley. Abu al-Soud said rainfall on Thursday in the Madaba region reached 400ml per hour.

The committee decided to refer the report on the dam to a neutral technical committee comprising representatives of the Engineers Syndicate, the Association of Contractors, experts and companies specialized in water and dams to review and evaluate the report.




  • no comments

Notice
All comments are reviewed and posted only if approved.
Ammon News reserves the right to delete any comment at any time, and for any reason, and will not publish any comment containing offense or deviating from the subject at hand, or to include the names of any personalities or to stir up sectarian, sectarian or racial strife, hoping to adhere to a high level of the comments as they express The extent of the progress and culture of Ammon News' visitors, noting that the comments are expressed only by the owners.
name : *
email
show email
comment : *
Verification code : Refresh
write code :