Qaraoun Lake:

• The largest artificial lake in Lebanon
• Located in Western Bekaa at 800 meters above sea level
• Established on the Qaraoun dam (Litani River) in 1959
• The area of the lake is around 11,800,000 m2 at above sea level 858m (storage 222 Mm3) and 5,000,000 m2 at above sea level 838m (storage 53 Mm3)
• The lake storage static capacity is around 220 million m3.

Qaraoun Dam or “Albert Naqash Dam”:

Dam Specifications:

The dam is 60 meters high, 1090 meters long and 162 meters wide at most. The overall size of the dam is around 2 million m3 Structure: it is a rock fill dam made of stacked rock debris with a front layer of cobble rocks. Leak proof tiles: made of reinforced concrete in the front facade of the dam, with a thickness varying between 50 cm in the lower section of the dam and 30 cm in the upper section of it. These tiles occupy an area of 47000 m2 and they are tied to each other by a rubber material called WATER STOP (thickness 10mm). Spaces left between tiles are filled with insulating asphalt-based materials.

Flood Discharge Spillway:

The spillway is considered to be the most important facility related to the dam as it protects it in case of floods and provides a passage way that ensures the proper flow of water, in order not to damage the dam.

It is a tower (tulip) made of reinforced concrete in the lake, related to a tunnel passing beneath the dam all the way to the river course (discharge capacity 750 m3/s).

**The dam is equipped with two bottom drains to allow total or partial emptying of a restraint (discharge flow for each drain-60 m3/s)