[NYTr] Iraqi dam 'at risk of collapse': 65-foot wave could wash out Mosul

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[When is the international community going to string up Bush/Cheney &
their Reich? -NYTr]

BBC - Oct 30, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7069109.stm

Iraqi dam 'at risk of collapse'

The largest dam in Iraq is at risk of an imminent collapse that could
unleash a 20m (65ft) wave of water on Mosul, a city of 1.7m people, the
US has warned.

In May, the US told Iraqi authorities to make Mosul Dam a national
priority, as a catastrophic failure would result in a "significant loss
of life".

However, a $27m (£13m) US-funded reconstruction project to help shore
up the dam has made little or no progress.

Iraq says it is reducing the risk and insists there is no cause for
alarm.

However, a US watchdog said reconstruction of the dam had been plagued
by mismanagement and potential fraud.

In a report published on Tuesday, the Special Inspector General for
Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said US-funded "short-term solutions" had
yet to significantly solve the dam's problems.

SIGIR found multiple failures in several of the 21 contracts awarded to
repair the dam.

Among the faults were faulty construction and delivery of improper
parts, as well as projects which were not completed despite full
payments having been made.

'Fundamentally flawed'

The dam has been a problem for Iraqi engineers since it was constructed
in 1984.

It was built on water-soluble gypsum, which caused seepage within
months of its completion and led investigators to describe the site as
"fundamentally flawed".

In September 2006, the US Army Corps of Engineers determined that the
dam, 45 miles upstream of Mosul on the River Tigris, presented an
unacceptable risk.

"In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is
the most dangerous dam in the world," the corps warned, according to
the SIGIR report. "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is
likely." 

The corps later told US commanders to move their equipment away from
the Tigris flood plain near Mosul because of the dam's instability.

The top US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, and US
ambassador Ryan Crocker then wrote to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki
urging him to make fixing the dam a "national priority".

"A catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam would result in flooding along
the Tigris River all the way to Baghdad" the letter on 3 May warned.

"Assuming a worst-case scenario, an instantaneous failure of Mosul Dam
filled to its maximum operating level could result in a flood wave 20m
deep at the city of Mosul, which would result in a significant loss of
life and property."

If that were to happen some have predicted that as many as 500,000
people could be killed.

Alarm bells

Iraqi authorities, however, say they are taking steps to reduce the
risk and they do not believe there is cause for alarm.

The Iraqi Minister for Water Resources, Latif Rashid, told the BBC that
a number of steps were being taken to tackle the problem, including a
reduction in water levels in the reservoir and a round-the-clock
operation to pump grouting into the dam's foundations.

Work would also begin next year on a longer-term plan to make the
foundations safe by encasing them in a concrete curtain, he added.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says the debate over the dam has gone on
largely behind the scenes so as not to cause public panic or attract
the interest of insurgents.

© BBC MMVII