Qaraoun Dam
Dam and hydroelectric scheme, 220 million m3 reservoir; 195 MW installed across four hydroelectric plants in Lebanon.
Operational
Landmark Lebanon's largest reservoir, built on the Litani for power and irrigation, and now the focus of a national depollution effort.
The record
- Country
- Lebanon
- Location
- Qaraoun
- Coordinates
- 33.548, 35.690
- Technology
- Dam and hydroelectric scheme
- Capacity
- 220 million m3 reservoir; 195 MW installed across four hydroelectric plants
- Capital cost
- —
- Stage
- Operational
- Owner or client
- Litani River Authority
- Contractor
- —
- Operator
- Litani River Authority
- Finance
- —
- Award or start year
- 1964
- Commissioned
- —
Record last checked 2026-10-16.
History
- 1964
Dam completed on the Litani, per the Litani River Authority
- 1979
Water stop rehabilitation of the concrete facing
- 1989
Second water stop rehabilitation
- 2010
Third water stop rehabilitation against leakage
Sources
9 references
Every field in the record above is taken from the references below. A field that none of them confirms prints as a dash.
- Litani River Authority, Measures to remove pollution and protect water and environmental resources. litani.gov.lb.
- Water reserve 220 million cubic meters, height 62 metres, crest 1,100 metres, rockfill dam with a 50,000 m2 concrete facing; four hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 195 megawatts; intake tunnels and pipelines 31 km long at 3 metres diameter.
- Litani River Authority, Dam break modeling for Qaraoun Dam, Volume 1. litani.gov.lb.
- Concrete faced rockfill dam with a maximum capacity of 220 million m3, at a narrow point at the southern end of the Bekaa plain at 800 m elevation.
- Litani River Authority, LRBMS project page. litani.gov.lb.
- Gives 60 metres height, three plants and 190 MW, and dates the water stop rehabilitations to 1979, 1989 and 2010. The two authority pages disagree on height and installed power; the fuller depollution page is used here.
- Coordinates from the OpenStreetMap node for Qaraoun Dam.
- Litani River Authority, Terms of Reference, Dam Engineering Expert and Chairperson, Dam Safety Panel of Experts, Lebanon Renewable Energy and System Reinforcement Project (P180501). pe.ppa.gov.lb.
- 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.
p. 2: Qaraoun Dam, date of completion 1964, concrete faced rockfill dam, 61 m high, crest 1,090 m, gross storage 220 million m3, active storage 170 million m3. The year follows this document (editor's decision, 16 Oct 2026); the World Bank's 2016 appraisal document says the dam was built in 1959.