Bisri Dam
Dam and water supply scheme, 125 million m3 reservoir (design); dam never built in Lebanon.
Cancelled
The record
- Country
- Lebanon
- Location
- Bisri
- Coordinates
- 33.575, 35.508
- Technology
- Dam and water supply scheme
- Capacity
- 125 million m3 reservoir (design); dam never built
- Capital cost
- US$617 m original project cost (2014); World Bank financing cancelled in 2020 and the project closed in June 2024; listed for resumed construction in the 2024–2035 national water strategy
- Stage
- Cancelled
- Owner or client
- Council for Development and Reconstruction
- Contractor
- None mobilised; the World Bank recorded that the contractor had not been mobilised at the worksite
- Operator
- —
- Finance
- IBRD loan US$474m; Islamic Development Bank US$128m; Government of Lebanon US$15m
- Award or start year
- 2014
- Commissioned
- —
Record last checked 2026-10-11.
History
- 2014-09
World Bank approves the US$474 million Water Supply Augmentation Project
- 2018-12
World Bank Inspection Panel declines to investigate
- 2020-06
Financing partially suspended on 26 June
- 2020-09
World Bank cancels US$244 million of undisbursed funds effective 5 September
- 2022
World Bank cancels a further US$19.3 million
- 2024-06
Project closes on 30 June
Sources
11 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- World Bank, Lebanon Water Supply Augmentation Project (Bisri Dam) programme page. worldbank.org.
- Storage 125 million cubic meters; total cost US$617 million; site 35 kilometers south of Beirut immediately upstream of the village of Bisri; 26 km gravity tunnel with treatment at Wardanieh; over 1.6 million beneficiaries.
- World Bank, Cancellation of Water Supply Augmentation Project statement (4 Sep 2020). worldbank.org.
- The government submitted a draft Ecological Compensation Plan on 12 August 2020 and the Bank's 25 August comments were not addressed to its satisfaction; the contractor had not been mobilized at the worksite.
- World Bank, Bisri Dam project cancellation factsheet (Sep 2020). worldbank.org.
- US$244 million cancelled effective 5 September 2020; about US$197 million disbursed; 861 landowners paid US$155 million in expropriation fees; partial suspension from 26 June 2020. World Bank, project detail P125184. projects.worldbank.org.
- Board approval 30 September 2014; implementing agency the Council for Development and Reconstruction; closed 30 June 2024. Coordinates from the OpenStreetMap way for the Bisri dam site.
- The dam height of 73 m circulating in secondary summaries could not be confirmed and is omitted.
- World Bank, Implementation Completion and Results Report, Water Supply Augmentation Project P125184 (2025). documents1.worldbank.org.
- The project closed on its actual closing date of 30 June 2024; US$244 million was cancelled in 2020 and a further US$19.3 million in 2022. Ministry of Energy and Water, Lebanon's National Water Strategy 2024-2035 (June 2024). bdd.pseau.org.
- MENA Water Review major projects register and PPP pipeline — compiled from procurer publications, development-bank project pages and trade reporting; each record names its source.
lists Bisri among the dams whose construction is to resume by 2030.