TECHNIQUES FOR DETECTING THE PROGRESS OF THE LEAKS IN DAMS AND OTHER ARTIFICIAL RESERVOIRS

Abstract

The majority of dams and reservoirs in operation have leakage problems which are very expensive to repair because the diagnosis causes through conventional methods is often inadequate. In addition, they can jeopardize all goods and people is located immediately downstream of the structure because they are capable of causing it to break. The study of this phenomenon proves to be very important because it can endanger the stability of the dam and reduce its useful capacity especially as the water resource availability in Africa is a very crucial problem affecting the brunt the welfare of the communities in terms of health and annuity generation through Agriculture and Industry. To this end, the National Agency of Dams has launched an African Regional Cooperation Agreement (AFRA), inter-governmental agreement signed between several African countries, for the promotion of the use of radioisotopes for problem solving urgent socioeconomic. It consists in applying accurate tracing techniques for locating leaks resulting in reduced repair costs. These techniques are the object of our searches on water leaks in the Algerian dams.