Bisri Dam
The Bisri Dam is being constructed on the Awali River in Jezzine province in southern Lebanon. Its reservoir will store 125 Mm³ of water and will supply 91 Mm³ of it annually, which will flow to Beirut entirely by gravity through a 26-kilometer long underground tunnel with an inner diameter of 4 meters, and will be treated at the Wardanieh Water Treatment Plant located along the way. The design will generate and secure clean and continuous water for 1.6 million people residing in the Greater Beirut and the Mount Lebanon areas. Furthermore, the dam will replenish and supplement continuously ground water flows.
The Bisri project will have a 74-meter high clay core zoned embankment dam, and 2 hydropower plants (a 500-kW integrated with the dam, and a 12 MW located 3 kilometers downstream). The project will involve the construction of a 9,000,000 m3 embankment dam, 74 meters tall from the foundation, and with a crest length of 740 meters. The imperviousness of the dam will be clay core and will be supported with a 45,000 m² diaphragm wall with a maximum depth of 120 meters at the dam foundation. The river diversion will have a 725-meter long tunnel, will be excavated to a diameter of 6 meters using a traditional method, and will be lined with reinforced concrete to a final inner diameter of 5 meters.
Revised planning envisions full commissioning towards late 2027. The Bisri Dam is owned and will be operated by the Council for Development and Reconstruction Authority (CDR) of the Republic of Lebanon.