Iraqi dam seen in danger of deadly collapse Failure could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, killing up to 500 Iraq's largest dam in danger of collapse Oct. 30: The largest dam in Iraq is in danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people. NBC's Tom Aspell reports.
AT THE MOSUL DAM, Iraq - The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies.Story continues below ↓
"In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world," the Army Corps concluded in September 2006, according to the report to be released Tuesday. "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely."Behind-the-scenes wrangling The effort to prevent a failure of the dam has been complicated by behind-the-scenes wrangling between Iraqi and U.S. officials over the severity of the problem and how much money should be allocated to fix it. The Army Corps has recommended building a second dam downstream as a fail-safe measure, but Iraqi officials have rejected the proposal, arguing that it is unnecessary and too expensive.The debate has taken place largely out of public view because both Iraqi and U.S. Embassy officials have refused to discuss the details of safety studies -- commissioned by the U.S. government for at least $6 million -- so as not to frighten Iraqi citizens. Portions of the draft report were read to The Washington Post by an Army Corps official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The Post also reviewed an Army Corps PowerPoint presentation on the dam."The Army Corps of Engineers determined that the dam presented unacceptable risks," U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, wrote in a May 3 letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "Assuming a worst-case scenario, an instantaneous failure of Mosul Dam filled to its maximum operating level could result in a flood wave 20 meters deep at the City of Mosul, which would result in a significant loss of life and property."Fundamental problem Sitting in a picturesque valley 45 miles along the Tigris River north of Mosul, the earthen dam has one fundamental problem: It was built on top of gypsum, which dissolves when it comes into contact with water.Almost immediately after the dam was completed in the early 1980s, engineers began injecting the dam with grout, a liquefied mixture of cement and other additives. More than 50,000 tons of material have been pumped into the dam since then in a continual effort to prevent the structure, which can hold up to 3 trillion gallons of water, from collapsing.After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, American officials began to study risks posed by the dam, which they said were underestimated by Iraqis."Iraqi government believes dam is safe," concluded a 32-page PowerPoint presentation prepared by the Army Corps and dated December 2006.On a tour of the dam on a recent blistering afternoon, Ayoub, the manager, contended that the dam was safe but acknowledged the unusual problems with it.Seepage from the dam funnels into a gushing stream of water that engineers monitor to determine the severity of the leakage. Twenty-four clanging machines churn 24 hours a day to pump grout deep into the dam's base. And sinkholes form periodically as the gypsum dissolves beneath the structure."You cannot find any other dam in the world like this," said Ayoub, a mustachioed man in a dark business suit who has worked at the dam since 1983 and has managed it since 1989.
pls forgive me for this "copy/paste"... I did see it in your news section, however, had just copied from msnbc and was wondering about comments from others. as u know i don't usually do the copy/paste, so LOB don't jump down my throat, LOL, teasing.
< Message edited by Admin -- 11/2/2007 7:40:48 PM >
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Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
I edited your post by getting rid of some text which i think you accidentally pasted from the msnbc site, I think they were links and adverts or something.
Yes, this is a very worrying topic. I wonder when the Iraqi government will act. Maybe after half of Iraq is flooded and thousands killed. They may act by Maliki giving a 1 minute statement condemning it and sending condolences and probebly blaiming Al Qaida and Baathists for the dam's collapse. Typical.
i perhaps recall discussing this issue sometime back, i could be wrong. this sounds horrible and i do NOT understand why something is not being done about it. when Katrina hit here there were rumors about that dam and notta was done until it was too late.
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Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
Yes, you are right. Calm posted a report about the Dam some time ago. They knew six months ago and nothing was done! I read in the BBC report that they assigned $27m for the repair of the Dams structure but the money appears to have been whittled away by crooks posing as contractors. Here is a quote from the BBC's report:
quote:
However, a $27m (£13m) US-funded reconstruction project to help shore up the dam has made little or no progress. 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.
Its an absolute disgrace and those responsible should be put on trial for treason. We already know that upgrading our streets, refineries, power plants and security are not "their" priority, but this is a national disaster waiting to happen.
How long will it take before it collapses? Can they predict some sort of time for it or will it come all of a sudden?
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".
and....
quote:
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.
and...
quote:
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.
With this in mind, I believe the terrorists will be making the bombing of this dam a priority even if our stupid corrupt government doesn't. God help the people of Mosul.
although this dam was built many years before saddam came to powe, the ruthless government of maliki will make a case and blame saddam for not taking care of it. A dam that was structurely at fault from the begining will now collapse at the hands of the shia led government and why would they care? Those who will suffer the concequcnes are not shia, but sunni arabs and kurds as well as minorities such as christians.
another black page in the maliki spasode
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Long Live The Honorable Iraqis and down with the Safaween.
although this dam was built many years before saddam came to powe, the ruthless government of maliki will make a case and blame saddam for not taking care of it.
100%. The Dam was actually built in 1984 during Saddam's rule.
The Iraqi government has dismissed a US warning that Iraq's largest dam is at imminent risk of collapse and is threatening the lives of thousands.
Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said US claims that Mosul Dam, in the country's north, was the most dangerous in the world were inaccurate and "totally untrue". Mr Dabbagh said it was under constant observation and regularly maintained. In May, the US told Iraq a catastrophic collapse could unleash a 20m (65ft) wave on Mosul, a city of 1.7 million.
The Dam was constructed over multi-strates of gypsum,limestone and clay stone, these stratography was very narrows and interbedded, so it is not too much danger but it needs each few years a reabilitation by injection many tons of ciments by bore holes in frount of the Dam, to prevent the increases of the cavities in the gypsum.
somex's when these disasters happen it takes care of some of the undesirables...not to my or anyone posting here, but to some higher up's ideas of undesireables. of course i could be wrong... Katrina in US had similar situation and many said the same.
Control, money, power, leads to sickness of the soul. For MOST.
of course i realize this has been insinuated perhaps said above already. i am not known for mixing words.
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Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
According to recent reports, if this dam collapses (or whatever dams do when they break) it will wipe out between 250,000 to half a million people. Now bear in mind that the Iraqi emergency services are not equipped or trained for such an eventuality so the figures will be much higher later down the line. Instead of meeting with the Army Corps and setting a contingency plan, our government flat out denies that the dam is in any danger, leaving us all in limbo. When will they wake up and start acting like they give a ****!
YellowSunshine hate to say this, but here is ms. big mouth...
somex's when these disasters happen it takes care of some of the undesirables...not to my or anyone posting here, but to some higher up's ideas of undesireables. of course i could be wrong... Katrina in US had similar situation and many said the same.
Control, money, power, leads to sickness of the soul. For MOST.
of course i realize this has been insinuated perhaps said above already. i am not known for mixing words.
quote:
ORIGINAL: YellowSunshine
I like to ask what you say in this post either you are not speak english or you are from the wild desert can you tell me???
somex's when these disasters happen it takes care of some of the undesirables...not to my or anyone posting here, but to some higher up's ideas of undesireables. of course i could be wrong... Katrina in US had similar situation and many said the same.
YS. Just to make things clear. Are you saying that perhaps the US government could have done more before/after the Katrina disaster but didn't in order to rid itself from the undesirables (poor, displaced, jobless, etc)?
while in south africa a few yrs back met a wealthy man in a rstrnt, i was with my "new husband" (which did NOT work out) on our honeymoon. this man stated that aids was NOT a problem it was a solution. if i could have i would have slapped him silly, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! to speak of other human beings with souls as if they were just "things" to be gotten rid of. disgusting and inhumane!
_____________________________
Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
if i recall correctly, there were many statements that the dam in new orleans was going to break loose and that they needed to get people out of there, but nothing was done until it was too late.
so many lives were lost and the care of the misplaced people was horrible. it is still a mess there.
wonder if it were the "rich and famous" living in that area if things would have been handled diferently.
sad
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Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
Reports on the Mosul dam have all but dissapeared. Here is one I found today.
quote:
Ignorance and concern over Mosul Dam Two Iraqis from areas that would be affected by a collapse of Mosul Dam speak about a lack of local awareness of the problems. OMER, TRANSLATOR, MOSUL
I was born in Mosul and have lived here my whole life. I only found out about problems with the dam two months ago through the internet.
The Iraqi government has played down warnings over the dam I was shocked when I read an article about it - everything I now know I learnt through foreign media: the BBC, al-Jazeera, not through local people. I visited the area around the dam and spoke to people working in the electricity industry there about it. They didn't want to know, it was like a joke to them. Amazingly, no-one seems to care about it. Daily life in Mosul is dangerous - it makes residents careless about everything else. And people aren't particularly educated here. Most of the electricity the dam supplies goes to the northern, Kurdish areas. I think the risk of the dam collapsing is serious. If it did, the most at-risk areas are Sunni. Most of the Iraqi government is Shia. I'm not trying to be critical but there it is. If the dam was in a Shia area, there would be a huge fuss about it. I am not confident the Iraqi government is in control of the problem. They've done nothing about serious problems before.
MOHAMMED, ENGINEER, DOHUK I am quite sure 90% of people in Mosul are not aware of the problems with the dam or the exact danger they are in. Here in Dohuk we are about 25km upstream from the lake behind the dam. So, the dam is close to us. A good number of our relatives and friends live downstream. I first heard whispers that there were problems years ago. But under Saddam, anything related to the state was a secret. You talk about it - you're in trouble. Then later, the information started to come out - that it was built on layers of gypsum which had cracks in it. They have been injecting material to fill the cracks in the gypsum. The solutions are mainly based on the findings and advice of local engineers. These are small repairs, but I don't think it's enough. Even if there is a small danger, you should take very serious precautions. I think that a big international engineering bid should be floated, together with enough funds to save the dam and save the lives at risk.
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"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others" - Nelson Mandela
I think our world has gotten so small and connected through the use of the internet, etc., that what used to appear to be far off news is now in "every one back yard" if this makes sense.
We are all living such fast pace lives now, we have land line phones, cell phones, snail mail, internet mail, web, reg. tv news, newspapers, etc.. The news will cover something and everyone is talking about it, then within a short space of time it is the next big story. INFORMATION OVERLOAD. Everyone has so much thrown at them they often forget the last potential disaster, or last disaster that happened.
another cup of coffee so that i can wake up more here for more INFORMATION overload.
oh, of course here in america, we are also bombarded with with Brittney, Paris, Nicole, etc., is doing, latest rehab, movie 's, in between the everyday flood of terror and disaster as well. perhaps in iraq there is something that is similar. the trival often is the way many choose to escape the flood of info. and the horrors of reality.
_____________________________
Faith, Hope and Love, the Greatest of these is LOVE!!!
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." George Orwell
The above speaks for itself. I think our world has gotten so small and connected through the use of the internet, etc., that what used to appear to be far off news is now in "every one back yard" if this makes sense.
Sure does, the Internet is amazing and has changed all our lives forever. It's allowed interaction between people from different backgrounds and offered them forums to discuss common (and uncommon) concerns. If it was taken away I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Its such an integrated part of our lives now.
quote:
oh, of course here in america, we are also bombarded with with Brittney, Paris, Nicole, etc., is doing, latest rehab, movie 's, in between the everyday flood of terror and disaster as well. perhaps in iraq there is something that is similar. the trival often is the way many choose to escape the flood of info. and the horrors of reality.
It's same same this part of the world. We also have our own versions of Britney and Paris. They're called Haifa and Nancy.
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"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others" - Nelson Mandela
If the Mosul Dam were to break let's hope that the aftermath would not be similar to Katrina in this country, update follows:
By Peter Whoriskey updated 6:17 a.m. ET, Sun., Nov. 25, 2007 function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((''.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('633315862528900000');BILOXI, Miss. - Nowhere has the rebound from Hurricane Katrina been gaudier than along Mississippi's casino-studded coast.Even as the storm's debris was being cleared, this city's night sky was lighted up with the high-wattage brilliance of the Imperial Palace, then the Isle of Capri, then the Grand Casino. More followed, and so did vacation-condo developers.Yet in the wrecked and darkened working-class neighborhoods just blocks from the waterfront glitter, those lights cast their colorful glare over an apocalyptic vision of empty lots and scattered trailers that is as forlorn as anywhere in Katrina's strike zone. "At night, you can see the casino lights up in the sky," Shirley Salik, 72, a former housekeeper at one of the casinos, said this month while standing outside her FEMA camper with her two dogs. "But that's another world."More than two years after the storm, the highly touted recovery of the Mississippi coast remains a starkly divided phenomenon.While Gov. Haley Barbour (R) has hailed the casino openings as a harbinger of Mississippi's resurgence and developers have proposed more than $1 billion in beachfront condos and hotels for tourists, fewer than one in 10 of the thousands of single-family houses destroyed in Biloxi are being rebuilt, according to city permit records. More than 10,000 displaced families still live in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Long-standing resentment Now, long-standing resentment over the way the state has treated displaced residents has deepened over a proposal by the Barbour administration to divert $600 million in federal housing aid to fund an expansion plan at the Port of Gulfport. The port's recently approved master plan calls for increasing maritime capacity and creating an "upscale tourist village" with hotel rooms, condos, restaurants and gambling."We fear that this recent decision . . . is part of a disturbing trend by the Governor's office to overlook the needs of lower and moderate income people in favor of economic development," 24 ministers on the Mississippi coast wrote in September in a letter to state leaders. "Sadly we must now bear witness to the reality that our Recovery Effort has failed to include a place at the table . . . for our poor and vulnerable."State leaders rejected the complaints. Gray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, which is leading the state's recovery efforts, called the port expansion a "key piece" of the state's economic recovery and said that already-funded programs will be enough to address the state's housing needs."The people at this table are very compassionate about the people on the coast," he said. "We feel housing has been addressed, and it's in our plans."Swoope said that because storm-displaced Mississippians are being accommodated by the state's housing programs, the state is comfortable asking the Department of Housing and Urban Development for permission to redirect the housing aid to the port project.Exactly how much help residents should receive for rebuilding has been a flashpoint from the beginning of the recovery, when Louisiana and Mississippi adopted starkly divergent approaches to dispensing federal housing aid.Louisiana leaders designed a homeowner grant program that is far broader. Essentially, any homeowner with significant hurricane damage is eligible to receive as much as $150,000 for rebuilding, less any insurance payouts received. A special provision for low-income homeowners added as much as $50,000 to the award if the damage claim was not enough to rebuild.Mississippi's primary homeowner grant program, by contrast, was much narrower.The program, known as Phase 1, focused only on the relatively narrow group of homeowners who lived outside the designated flood-prone areas -- and as a result did not have flood insurance -- but were flooded by Katrina.It excluded thousands who lived in the flood zone and lacked adequate flood insurance, as well as anyone who experienced only wind damage.Bailing them out, the argument went, would encourage homeowners to forgo insurance coverage in the future. But because low-income households were more likely to lack insurance or to be underinsured, Mississippi's exclusions fell most heavily on the poor, advocates said.CONTINUED: "Mississippi had to be pushed every step of the way"
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Mosul Dam - 
hate to say this, but here is ms. big mouth... 
RE: Mosul Dam - 
's, in between the everyday flood of terror and disaster as well. perhaps in iraq there is something that is similar. the trival often is the way many choose to escape the flood of info. and the horrors of reality. 
RE: Mosul Dam - 
RE: Mosul Dam - 
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