Estimate of the Eutrophication Process in the Gruža Reservoir (Serbia and Montenegro)

The Gru?a Reservoir (located at 238…269 m a. s. l., volume 64.6 · 10⁶ m³, surface 934 ha, drainage area 318 km², max. depth 31 m, mean theoretical retention time 22 months) was investigated during the years 1996 to 2001. The obtained values of trophic state parameters (9…200 μg L^?1 total phosphorus, 3…99 μg L^?1 chlorophyll‐a, and 0.5…2 m transparency) indicate that water of the Gru?a Reservoir is eutrophic according to three types of classification: Carlson, OECD, and Jones and Lee. It was noticed that values of average biomass abundance are large in the Gru?a Reservoir, and they could indicate a richer trophic state. When these indices are cited in connection with parameters of the trophic state, it is apparent that the Gru?a Reservoir can be classified as a eutrophic water on the basis of total phosphorus content of chlorophyll‐a and hypertrophic water with respect to transparency.     

The Tragedy of the Karama Dam Project/Jordan

The Karama Dam, with a capacity of 55 Mio m³, was constructed in 1995 on Wadi Mallaha in the Jordan Valley area in order to store water for irrigational uses. The dam was constructed in spite of experts' warnings that this dam geologically, hydrogeologically, seismically, and from the points of view of salinity of its water, its management and the water resources to fill it is totally irrelevant, and that the dam will fail to fulfill its purposes. Now after 9 years of its construction the dam fails to collect water because there are no sources available to fill it. The water the farmers were deprived of to partially fill the dam to demonstrate its success became in the dam reservoir highly saline (20 000 μS/cm). Reservoir bottom collapses due to dissolution of salts took place and large water amounts were lost to the underground. Not a single drop of water from the dam has been of any use for any purpose until now. Equipment to pump water for irrigational uses has been corroding, and the government is paying the depreciation, capital, and running cost of a fiasco project.