Lebanon's Blue Gold - Chabrouh Dam Filling Up

The dam, located 40 kilometers northeast of Beirut, will draw its water from rainfall and Al-Laban Spring.



Lebanon's most significant (and perhaps only) natural resource is water, or what I'm dubbing Blue Gold.

It is estimated that over 1 billion cubic meters of fresh water are 'lost' to sea every year. 1 billion cubic meters! And it's renewable...

Though we may not have a single drop of Black Gold (oil), our Blue Gold surplus is so great, so pure, and so renewable that we could pay off our entire debt (40B USD) by just harnessing the excess and shipping it out at a premium to our neighbors over the course of 10 years - perhaps less if fresh water prices keep rising as expected.

A hydrologist once told me that she had seen plans - in dusty boxes in the water ministry - drawn up before the civil war, of major water works in the bekaa, south, and metn, that were genius, pure genius. She said that had the Qaraoun Dam been fully developed, the entire bekaa region would have free power and irrigation.


tags: chabrouh dam, faraya, blue gold, lebanon, lebanese, water, surplus, emile lahoud, beirut, kesrouan, metn, mount lebanon, spring, cubic meters, middle east, maxime chaya, photography, photo, image, picture

-finkployd- Blue Gold on Blogging Beirut