Army warns of Iraq dam catastrophe

The largest dam in Iraq is in danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a huge wave of water, possibly drowning 500,000 people, new assessments by the US Army Corps of Engineers show.

A collapse would put Mosul under 20 metres of water and parts of Baghdad under 4.5 metres, according to Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul dam had alarmed US officials. At the same time, a US reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials. The reconstruction project, worth at least $US27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies. Sitting in a picturesque valley 70 kilometres 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.

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