Lebanon Hill Lakes Programme

Lebanon has limited water storage and increasingly variable rainfall. The Green Plan, under the Ministry of Agriculture, has for decades built hill lakes to secure water for agriculture, and Libanconsult has designed and supervised a large share of the medium-sized lakes across Mount Lebanon, the North and the Bekaa.

Libanconsult delivered design and construction supervision across a rolling portfolio from 2004 to 2021, with several lots financed by the European Commission. Assignments covered Aarouba, Mristi and Dimane; Ehden; Ehmej and Tannourine; Menjez and Karm El Mohr; Bechenata and Tarchich (Lot 4); Jezzine and Blida (Lot 2); and construction supervision at Menjez.

Each lake typically comprises earthworks, an embankment dam body 8 to 15 m high with geomembrane and geotextile waterproofing, storage of 30,000 to 120,000 m3, a spillway, bottom evacuation, intake and outlet works, access roads and ancillary networks. Design assignments delivered topographic and geological survey, geotechnical investigation, hydrological studies, preliminary and detailed design, BOQ and tender documents; supervision covered earthworks, dam fill and compaction, HDPE and clay waterproofing, ancillary structures, quality assurance and commissioning.

The portfolio has added substantial storage to Lebanon's agricultural water supply, lake by lake, over seventeen years.