Current water storage in Kingdom's 14 main dams stands at 74mcm — ministry

AMMAN — The total water storage of the Kingdom’s 14 main dams by the end of the rainy season on March 27 reached 90 million cubic metres (mcm) out of the total capacity of dams of 280.759mcm, the Water Ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry said that the current storage stands at 74mcm with a storage percentage of 26.5 per cent compared with last year’s 75.4mcm or 26.8 per cent, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The ministry also noted that the dams used for drinking purposes are Al Wehdah and Al Mujib dams, noting that their storage before the start of the rainy season was only 20mcm and that several dams dried by the end of the last season, which are Al Mujib, Al Waleh, Al Tannour and Shuaib.

The ministry attributed the depletion of water in these dams to lower rainfall due to climate change that has caused fluctuations in the distribution of rainfall, higher temperatures, long periods between precipitation, and lower temperatures during winter without successive rainfalls. 

The statistical report of rainfall for the Kingdom showed that precipitation was below average in most areas, except for the northern region that received 75 per cent of its annual average and the central region that received 86 per cent, while the eastern, southern and Jordan Valley regions registered only 42, 47 and 39 per cent, respectively.

The ministry also noted that most dams do not have feeding sources from surface water except for Al Wehdah and King Talal dams, noting that flow to the Yarmouk River has remarkably decreased over the past few years.