Farmers in Fujairah are asking authorities to build 20 dams to prevent villages from being flooded.

More dams would also save large quantities of rain water that could be redirected and used in farms.

The appeal comes in the wake of the heavy rain that hit the East Coast last week, making the ground fertile for the winter season. The rain helped the plantations in the region and gave hope to the farmers.

"Our farms were in desperate need of rain so this came at the right time. We still need heavy rains to fall in the East Coast to compensate for the acute drought we have been experiencing for the past five years," said Mohammad Rashid Saeed, a UAE national farmer from Dhadna.

Although there are several sizeable dams on the East Coast, more small dams and barriers are needed near the villages that are often most affected by heavy rains.

"Villages like Sharm, Al Bidya and Al Aqach are located at a low level and should be protected by dams or barriers as they are usually flooded whenever rain falls on the East Coast. Water flows down the mountains that surround these villages," Saeed said.

One dam is needed north of Sharm village, where old houses can easily be damaged by any sudden heavy rains, and three more dams should be built in Dhadna in the valleys of Asfa, Rukbi Al Rul and Mid Dhadna, residents said.

Abdullah Mohammad Salem, another national farmer from Al Bidyah, said another dam should be built to the north of Al Bidya village to stop rain water from flowing into the valleys.

"Though Al Bidya has three concrete dams built in Al Wareiyah, Al Sudiyah and Ghalilah Al Khun, the village needs more dams because the area has several small valleys," Salem said. Two other big dams are also needed at Wadi Al Abadelah and Wadi Wumm, he said.

A source from the Dibba Al Fujairah Municipality said ten small dams should also be built in Dibba city, replacing the old dams and barriers built by the municipality years ago.

"If we have more heavy rainfall, just like the one we had last week, the sandy dams and barriers in Dibba will be badly affected and will not be useful for collecting rain water. As such, we are asking the authorities to replace these sandy dams with concrete ones so that water is not lost to the sea," the source said.

There are more than 30 large valleys along the East Coast in addition to the smaller ones into which rain water flows during winter.

The 50 large and small dams and barriers on the East Coast are not enough to protect some mountainous villages and support the underground water storage, he said.

These dams and barriers are capable of holding more than 42 million cubic metres of rain water.

50 reservoirs to trap rain water

  • The first 19 were built by the Private Department of President His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, followed by a second phase in which nine were built
  • The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries built 16 dams and barriers
  • Six were built by the East Coast municipalities
  • The oldest dam was built in the early 1970s at Siji Wadi. It is 500 metres long and 10 metres high and can hold 1.6 million cubic metres of water
  • The biggest dam was built in Fujairah's Ham Valley in 1983. It is 2.8 km long. It can hold 10 million cubic metres of water.