Iraq's Mosul Dam Could Burst At Any Time (blastingnews.com)

MarkWhittington writes: The Mosul Dam, located near the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq, was started by Saddam Hussein in 1981 as a way to bolster his regime and provide power to the surrounding area. It was completed in 1986 and has since generated 3,420 gigawatt/hours per year. Unfortunately, the dam was built on an unstable foundation of gypsum and thus needs constant repairs to plug leaks and maintain its structural integrity. Even more unfortunately, such repair efforts have stopped since the Islamic State seized control of Mosul. The dam could burst at any time, as a consequence. The flood could kill a million people and render a million more homeless. Radio Free Europe reports that Italy's Trevi Group has been contracted to repair and maintain the dam, but it seems like there's a lot to catch up with. (Also at The Guardian and Mother Jones.)

Comments

Re:Wrong units?

[BlackPignouf]

"News for nerds, where submitters are too stupid to get important units right"

Re:Gypsum?

[khallow]

Drain the dam permanently. There could be something they could do to greatly reduce the risk of the dam (and maybe this new contractor will do just that), but in its current state, I just can't see any long term future for it. The problem of course, is that the dam apparently is a fundamental part of the Iraqi electrical grid and perhaps flood control as well.

It's like a badly run nuclear plant which is a minor accident away from meltdown. Except that it could kill a lot more people than a major meltdown could.

Re: could?

[AuMatar]

Your post made me so mad I'm going to go out and shoot someone. You murdered them by making this post.

Oh wait, that makes no moral or logical sense. You're absolutely right- just like yours doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, I thought the Iraq war was stupid then. But that doesn't make us responsible for something another group chooses to do afterwards.