.Iraq warned by US that Mosul Dam at risk of collapse
WASHINGTON - The top US military commander in Iraq warned Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in May that the country's biggest dam, just up the Tigris River from the northern city of Mosul, is at risk of collapse, putting the city's 1.7 million people in danger of being inundated by a 65-foot flood wave.
The letter from Army General David H. Petraeus, cosigned by the US ambassador to Iraq, is included in an audit to be published today. The report found that little or no progress has been made to shore up the Mosul Dam since the May warning, largely because a $27-million project funded by US reconstruction money has been plagued by mismanagement and possible fraud.
Although the new report falls short of saying that a collapse could be imminent, the auditors exhort the US Embassy to quickly put in place a new plan to shore up the dam.
The audit noted that a study completed more than three years ago found "the risks are high" that the dam could fail.
The May 3 letter from Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the US Army Corps of Engineers had warned US forces in December that they should move any American equipment away from the Tigris River floodplain near Mosul because of the dam's instability.
Petraeus and Crocker wrote that the warning applied to Iraqi civilians as well and urged Maliki to make the safety of the dam "a national priority" for the government.
"A catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam would result in flooding along the Tigris River all the way to Baghdad," more than 200 miles south of Mosul, the letter warned. "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 (more than 65 feet) deep at the city of Mosul, which would result in a significant loss of life and property."
The report, written by the US government's Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, found multiple failures in several of the 21 contracts awarded last year to repair the dam, including faulty construction and delivery of improper parts, and projects that were incomplete despite full payments.
The report did not detail the nationalities of the companies that had been awarded the contracts.
The dam, more than 2 miles wide, has been a problem for Iraqi engineers since it was completed under Saddam Hussein's regime in 1984. It was built in an area of shifting earth, which caused seepage within months of its completion and led investigators to determine that "the Mosul Dam site was fundamentally flawed."
Boston.com
Great, now Al Queda can add the dam to thier target list.
I would.
The letter from Army General David H. Petraeus, cosigned by the US ambassador to Iraq, is included in an audit to be published today. The report found that little or no progress has been made to shore up the Mosul Dam since the May warning, largely because a $27-million project funded by US reconstruction money has been plagued by mismanagement and possible fraud.
Although the new report falls short of saying that a collapse could be imminent, the auditors exhort the US Embassy to quickly put in place a new plan to shore up the dam.
The audit noted that a study completed more than three years ago found "the risks are high" that the dam could fail.
The May 3 letter from Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the US Army Corps of Engineers had warned US forces in December that they should move any American equipment away from the Tigris River floodplain near Mosul because of the dam's instability.
Petraeus and Crocker wrote that the warning applied to Iraqi civilians as well and urged Maliki to make the safety of the dam "a national priority" for the government.
"A catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam would result in flooding along the Tigris River all the way to Baghdad," more than 200 miles south of Mosul, the letter warned. "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 (more than 65 feet) deep at the city of Mosul, which would result in a significant loss of life and property."
The report, written by the US government's Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, found multiple failures in several of the 21 contracts awarded last year to repair the dam, including faulty construction and delivery of improper parts, and projects that were incomplete despite full payments.
The report did not detail the nationalities of the companies that had been awarded the contracts.
The dam, more than 2 miles wide, has been a problem for Iraqi engineers since it was completed under Saddam Hussein's regime in 1984. It was built in an area of shifting earth, which caused seepage within months of its completion and led investigators to determine that "the Mosul Dam site was fundamentally flawed."
Boston.com
Great, now Al Queda can add the dam to thier target list.
I would.
posted by madtom at 11:25 PM
3 Comments:
I'm sure right now AQ procurement people are frantically searching for some Lancaster bombers and surplus bouncing bombs.
Hardly. When my oldest was sent to Mosul with the 1/25th in 2003, I found out all i could on the subject of Mosul. That dam was well known as one of the worst engineered dams with the greatest potential for human disaster from the days it was under construction.
Though the dam was well built, it was place on top of a bed or highly water soluble gypsum and limestone. The same stuff in which Carlsbad Caverns in NM was formed. Why? because daddy Saddam wanted it there because it looked cool. If I knew it, I bet plenty of Iraqis knew it then and now.
It is being highlighted in the news now because there isn't enough gloom and doom to fill the spaces between ads right now and because the Army Corp is covering its ass. The consensus among them is that the dam is not repairable and is approaching the point it can't even be maintained. If it goes, then no one can say the Army Corp didn't see it coming. The Iraqi engineers (maybe the same ones that designed the damn dam?), see the problem as less urgent, but that is sort of the mentality of the region, isn't it? Why be proactive? Inshallah, as they say.....
that was me---^
Post a Comment
<< Home