BBC News Article: 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.

The Most Beautiful Ad Ever!

Iraqi singer Shatha Hassoun sings the Iraqi National Anthem in a cell phone company ad. Very beautiful music!

About The Northmost Tip of Iraq

I don't know much about politics, yet it think i know more that the Iraqi politicians, or maybe the vast majority of them.

Why would i say that?

Here's why...

Turkey says that the PKK is using the rugged mountains of northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan) as a launch pad for attacks against its troops in the southeastern part of Turkey (populated by Kurds as well).

Now, right till this moment, the Turkish Parliament approved military intervention authorization, valid for one year. The Kurdish Regional Government of Northern Iraq said that it will respond to any military intervention. The US Secretary of Defense said that the US (and Iraq) would react to this case if an attack occured, or in a way that would eliminate the PKK rebels.

Now if you read the previous sentance again, you would find that the Iraqi Government based in Baghdad has not said anything in this regard, other than saying that they consider the PKK as "persona non grata", and its hopes that things would be solved diplomatically; not mentioning the Turkish bombardment of the borderline, or the presence of 200 thousand Turkish soldiers! That is an impressing number if we recall that the US Army present in Iraq has a total of only 160 thousand nationwide!

The Government is "logically" responsible for protecting every inch of the National soil. May it be in the north, south, east or west of the country. At least the theory says so. But the Iraqi Gov't practice concentrates on how the Gov't members (and also Parliament members) think about themselves, and how they steal the Iraqi people's wealth, perhaps with each politician hiding behind the banner of his ethnicity or sect, while not paying the slightest attention to the Iraqi people, whether the people were of that politician's ethnicity or sect, or not!

If the Iraqi Gov't didn't take a national stand against any possible invasion, then we must not expect that the USA would! But if it did, then perhaps it would be better if we were annexed by the US. It is better than being annexed by Iran, and that's what some of the "Iraqi" politicians wish!

Iraq is Iraq, and every inch of Iraq counts. Anyone who respects Iraq is worth respect, and anyone who doesn't is simply not worth being respected. This includes, but it's not limited to, the Arab neighbors, as well as Iran and Turkey.

As for the way i see it, i certainly hope that things will be fine through peaceful ways, because i respect both cultures and peoples; The Turks and the Kurds. But if Turkey makes the aggression, then i hope that it would be minimal and only against the PKK. And at that time i will fully be with the Iraqi Kurds, for they will defend all of Iraq, not only Iraqi Kurdistan, at a time when the Baghdad Government is very busy doing nothing!

Something to laugh at on a bad week...

Great speech :)

30...

As this week ends, i become 30 years old!

30 years! O, the places i've been and the things i've seen!

However, my birthday this year did not have any signs of a birthday. There was no cake, no candles, no "Happy Birthday to You", and all of that because my mother is not here anymore.

I just couldn't...

This past year has been a very difficult one, and it is still open for everything...

How Did They Do It?!

It's been a long long time since i last wrote here.

As a matter of fact, i haven't written anything during September, being busy with many issues.

I have been staying at home (most of the time), with a few exceptions of staying at my cousin's.

There have been many topics but i couldn't find the chance to put them here, however, they would show up here, inshallah, soon.

Today's topic, however, is the Visibility of Shawwal Crescent(1428 AH), and seeing that crescent would mark the end of the Muslim fasting holy month of Ramadan.

Seeing the new moon has been an ongoing long story.

This country fasts today, and marks the end differently from the neighboring, and sometimes surrounding countries, as if the crescent is not the same crescent, and as if astronomy had nothing to say about the matter!

It gets even more complicated when we realize that the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq seems as if they see different crescents!!!

To mark my words on the above issue, Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar, as well as the Iraqi Sunnis, declared that Fri. 12 Oct. 2007 will be the 1st day of Eid al-Fitr (Lesser Feast); while the neighboring Oman, Egypt & Iran, as well as the Iraqi Shiites said that Saturday 13 Oct. 2007 would be the 1st day of Eid al-Fitr.

I don't have any country or sect preference, but astronomy says that the 2nd group is the right one this time, and the figure here explains why:

My question is: How did they do it?!