Dam Threatens to Leave Mosul and Its History Underwater
The Embassy of the United States in Iraq released a fact sheet on February 28th indicating that the Mosul Dam, located in the north of the country, has an “unprecedented risk of catastrophic failure with little warning.” The statement renewed concern about the structural flaws of the dam, which looked steady until IS captured the city of Mosul in June 2014. According to The Economist, the city could suffer half a million deaths from flash flooding within hours if the dam fails. The dam was built in 1984 on unstable and water-soluble types of bedrock. To offset the subsequent damage, about 600 Iraqi workers have tirelessly filled the holes with a cement-based grout. “We inject cement continuously. We work in three shifts: morning, evening and night,” reported dam technician Azim Ibrahim to Al-Monitor.
After seizing the city of Mosul, IS fighters took over the dam and halted regular maintenance. The government recaptured the dam three weeks later, but about half of the Iraqi workers refused to return to the site, and maintenance remained a practice of the past.
An overhead view of the Mosul Dam and its spillways. Courtesy of Wikimedia
On March 2nd, an Italian company called the Trevi Group signed a contract to make emergency repairs to the dam. The engineers, however, need at least two months to assess the damage and could take up to six months before they import necessary equipment and begin work. The Trevi contract has failed to promise a permanent solution.
In addition to the humanitarian concerns, the potential collapse of the dam carries severe cultural and historical implications. The Assyrian capitals of Nimrud, Nineveh, and Khorsabad date back to the first millennium B.C.E. and lie in the projected path of destruction. “Thousands of archaeological sites and heritage sites would essentially be wiped away," said Michael Danti, professor of archaeology at Boston University, when he spoke to National Geographic. These Assyrian capitals remain uninvestigated and contain a wealth of historical information that could shape the future identities of Iraqis.
Despite the magnitude of the risk, the people of Mosul remain more concerned with ISIS than with the status of the dam. A resident named Saba reported to Al-Monitorthat “It’s not true, the dam will not explode,” and that “IS (Islamic State) is more dangerous than the dam. IS kills and cuts hands.”
These two issues, however, are hardly separate. The risk of the dam collapsing has hindered Iraq’s plans to retake Mosul from IS. Iraqi forces are fear that ISIS fighters could strike the dam if they lose control of the city. Mosul represents a cultural hub where a broad range of groups live in peace, including the Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the Turkmen, Assyrians, Christians and Jews. Liberation of Mosul would help prevent conflict between these various groups.