Plan in place for flood prone areas in Muscat

With some areas of the capital more prone to floods after heavy rains, the Muscat Municipality has embarked on projects to help mitigate the problem.

Over the past few years, areas around Sultan Qaboos Street between Al Khuwair (ministries area) and Al Ghubra (around Extra Showroom and Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque) are inundated with rainwater, often disrupting vehicular movement along the stretch for hours.

Even residential areas in Al Ghubra report flooding, with people unable to venture out of their homes after heavy rains.

On Tuesday, the Muscat Municipality said that it has launched a project to build rainwater canals and drainage systems (with a length of 2,000 metres) in Al Ghubra.

The project aims to mitigate the effects of flood risks in the area and its surroundings and to raise the efficiency of drainage system.

The work is being carried out in the areas around Extra Showroom, Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, and the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the municipality had completed a similar project for rainwater drainage near the Ministries’ District.

While flooding around Al Nahdha Hospital in Wattayah has been resolved to greater extent, Muttrah Souq is another area which still continues to face constant threat from flooding after rains.

During a workshop to discuss the details of the Greater Muscat Masterplan, it was revealed that nearly 45 per cent of the areas in the capital are vulnerable to floods from wadis, while another 20 per cent are subject to coastal floods.

The project directors of the masterplan said that there was a need to identify areas of high strategic risk, and take precautions to counter worst-case scenarios for the local population, such as easy access to hospitals and facilitating localised safety areas.

The National Strategy for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change for the Sultanate of Oman (2020-2040) of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) called on urban planners in the country to consider the impact of heavy rainfall that usually follows the low-pressure systems developed in the sea, especially the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.