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The Lebanese Government : Save Fresh Water & Natural Resources, STOP the dam construction!

The Lebanese Government : Save Fresh Water & Natural Resources, STOP the dam construction!

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This petition has been created by pierre A. and may not represent the views of the Avaaz community.
pierre A.
started this petition to
The Lebanese Government
What is #NoDam??

No Dam is a campaign led by the community of Hammana

for the purpose of spreading awareness among the citizens of the “Upper Matn” and Lebanon about the risks associated with the implementation of the “Qaysamani Dam” and motivating them in joining their campaign to stop the project’s ongoing works.

It is an environmental movement
based on the strong drive of the citizens of Hammana to preserve the “Chaghour” Spring’s water and capture it in well-designed and environmentally friendly infrastructures; the Qaysamani Dam project does not fit either of those criteria.

It is also a patriotic campaign springing from an educated conviction that the Qaysamani Dam, if it were to be built in its current design and geographic location, will fail at supplying the villages of the Upper Matn with the alleged volume and quality of drinking water.

What is the Qaysamani Project?
It is a dam project that was proposed in the ten-year national water strategy of the Ministry of Energy and Water in year 2000. Its location was moved to the “Mghiteh plateau” in 2010. It is implemented by the Council of Development and Reconstruction, and funded from a loan offered by the Kuwaiti Fund. The construction of the dam is now in the excavation phase.

The project aims at storing 1 Million Cubic Meters (MCM) of rain and snow water. It is located on the “Mghiteh plateau” which lies in the protected zone of the “Chaghour Spring” where the law forbids any construction projects to avoid disrupting the natural underground course of the spring. This renders the current Qaysamani Project illegal!

What are the risks associated with the Qaysamani dam?
The shocking violation of the environmental law pushed the municipality of Hammana and the community to conduct a serious revision of the project’s technical and environmental studies. The municipality of Hammana consulted with a number of hydrologists and hydro-geologists, including a team of professors from the American University of Beirut, to conduct a technical review of the dam studies. These scientific consultations not only showed that the studies were insufficient to guarantee the suitability of the selected location, but also warned against serious risks that would threaten the environment and the Upper Matn residents. These are as follows:

1-
A significant reduction in the discharge of the Chaghour Spring:
The Chaghour Spring flows at a minimal annual rate of 5 MCM and is currently supplying drinking and irrigation water to the villages of Hammana and Bmariam. This reduction is a direct consequence of the dam preventing a significant (and unknown!) volume of rainwater from refilling the underground natural reservoir.

2-
A severe risk of pollution occurring in the Chaghour Spring:
This will be caused by the infiltration of pollutants from the stagnant water of the dam to the spring reservoir due to the highly karst and porous soil at the dam’s location.

3-
A risk of infrastructure collapse:
The dam’s stability is in question due to its location in a highly seismic region (close to the Yammouneh fault) and to the fact that the seismic hazard assessment study does not include sufficient analysis. This presents a serious risk of infrastructure collapsing and, consequently, causing disastrous flooding.

4-
A risk of exposure to carcinogenic chemicals:
Bitumen is being used as an insulation material for preventing water infiltration through the dam’s soil. Bitumens are produced by the distillation of crude oil during petroleum refining and have been proven to generate carcinogenic emissions when heated during road paving, and to release health hazardous chemicals in water.

Alternative solutions do exist!
Based on their concern that the Upper Maten citizens make an effective use of the Chaghour spring’s water, a group of engineers from Hammana and the region conducted preliminary studies for an alternative solution. The project consists in capturing the water downstream to the spring’s source and conveying it to the villages. This would allow providing a volume 5 times higher to that projected to be stored in the Qaysmani dam.

for more info:
www.facebook.com/savehammana
www.nodam.info


Posted (Updated )