The US state department issued this warning recently that the dam is in very dire straights. From the Economist:
Timing is very suspect. Lots of folks on Facebook saying that this is a warning of a false flag attack on the dam which would essentially devastate the region. A convenient bomb blast at the damn would help drive oil prices back up temporarily as well as give Isis another fake trophy.
Quote:Quote:http://www.economist.com/news/middle-eas...rytimebomb
“FIRE or flood” goes an old saying about the turbulent history of Iraq; and just now flood is the one to fear. American officials are ringing alarm bells over a potentially catastrophic collapse of the country’s biggest dam, 50km (30 miles) upstream from Mosul, Iraq’s second city, currently held by Islamic State (IS)
“What we do know is this—if this dam were in the United States, we would have drained the lake behind it,” said Lieutenant-General Sean MacFarland, who commands American forces in Iraq, to reporters last month in Baghdad. Sensors installed by American army engineers in December show widening fissures in the fragile gypsum base underneath the dam, though no one can predict when a breach might occur.
Iraqi authorities have downplayed the danger, in part because they have not had the money to fix it. But after repeated warnings from American experts and an infusion of $200m from the World Bank for urgent repairs, the Iraqi government has now contracted with the Trevi Group, an Italian firm, which it hopes will offer a more advanced and permanent method of plugging cavities in the stone base than the constant maintenance it has required for the past 30 years. That maintenance came to an abrupt halt after IS seized the dam in August 2014, and has continued only intermittently after it was seized back three weeks later. Essential equipment went missing then, and half its staff decided not to return to work.
Timing is very suspect. Lots of folks on Facebook saying that this is a warning of a false flag attack on the dam which would essentially devastate the region. A convenient bomb blast at the damn would help drive oil prices back up temporarily as well as give Isis another fake trophy.