Situated on the Tigris River, Mosul Dam is the fourth largest in the Middle East
and one of the largest in Iraq. It once supplied electricity and water
to much of the country, but is now only operating at partial capacity.
The U.S.-led coalition is still determining the likelihood the
hydroelectric dam could collapse but has developed a contingency plan
alongside the Iraqi government, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland said Thursday.
Built in the early 1980s, the dam is made largely of earth and situated
on soft mineral foundations, which are easily dissolved by water. A
report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2006 called Mosul Dam "the most dangerous dam in the world" because of its propensity to erode.
Since the Islamic State group extended its territory across Iraq in the
summer of 2014 maintenance teams have at times struggled to gain access
to the site. In July 2014 IS seized the dam, but Iraqi forces and
Kurdish fighters took back the structure with coalition air support
within weeks.
The U.S.-led coalition and Iraqi forces have drafted plans to move
civilians to safety should the dam collapse, Lt. Gen. MacFarland said,
warning that "when it goes, it's going to go fast and that's bad."
Speaking to The Associated Press by phone, Riyadh Izeddin, the director
general of Mosul Dam, said he had not been informed by the U.S. about
any such contingency plan.
"The Americans didn't tell us anything," he said before countering the
U.S.-led coalition's claims that the structure is in serious danger.
"There is nothing to be afraid of. There is nothing seriously wrong with the dam," he said.
The 2006 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report said the dam's collapse
would put the city of Mosul under 20 meters of water and kill up to half
a million people.
"If this dam was in the United States we would have drained the lake behind it," Lt. Gen. MacFarland said.
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