DW I’ll be highlighting very important facts:
Since February US authorities have been issuing warnings that the dam could collapse any day. They produced maps to show that the enormous amount of water would flood not only Mosul within hours, but also downstream Tigris cities like Tikrit and Baghdad.Engineers working there (Mosul Dam) are not impressed. "Nobody has asked us to leave," Marwan, who has been working at the power plant of the dam for almost 30 years, told DW. Like most engineers he lives in a village next to the dam that will be hit first if it collapses. But that is not even possible right now, he claims: "The water level is too low for this to happen, and we are careful not to let it rise too much."To visit the engineers in their village of low prefab houses that the ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had built in the 1980s, DW sneaked into the militarized zone the Kurdish peshmerga troops in control of the dam have put in place.
That's also why the engineers who were willing to be interviewed did not want reveal their real names and identities for fear of losing their jobs.
The engineers don’t want to reveal their real names because the PKK and other Kurds are in charge of this totally militarized zone.
Normal risk levelTheir story is not only confirmed by a third colleague working at the dam, but also the Iraqi minister of Water Resources, Muhsin al-Shammari. He told Reuters news agency recently that "the looming danger to the Mosul dam is one in a thousand. This risk level is present in all the world's dams."Khaleel, who's been working at the dam for 23 years, is involved in the operation to inject cement into the spongy soil underneath the dam. Work was halted for about a month when fighters of the "Islamic State" (IS) group captured the dam and the surrounding area in July 2014.
As I’ve repeatedly stated the dam is in NATO/Kurd hands in a completely militarized zone- ISIS is not in control of this dam. Nor are they particularly close to it. This is important.
"The whole area is now under military control, with a defence wall and control posts"
I’ll repeat that fact!
"The whole area is now under military control, with a defence wall and control posts"America controls data from the sensors
" US army engineers have placed sensors on the dam, and base their warning on the readings. They claim the gaps in the soil are forming faster than concrete gets injected. "Only they have the data, we do not," Khaleel complains"
Repeating:
"Only they have the data, we do not," Khaleel complains.Professor Kamel al-Mohsin, who specializes in dams and water resources at Mosul University, confirms the problem. The Americans, he says, monopolize their data, without it nobody really knows what is going on. "I only have a report, but none of the measurements it is based on," he told DW. He does not think that "the danger is imminent."
Why is the US monopolizing the data? Shouldn't the Iraqis have access to that data?Of course they should! However.. if the US provided the Iraqis with the actual data then the Iraqis may be able to seriously counter the claims and warnings made by the US. Clearly the US does not want the Iraqi engineers to be able to challenge the claims and warnings.If the US wants to take out the dam, denying the Iraqis this very important information is key.
One of the defects the Americans base their warnings on - the sluice door in the dam that is not opening - does not worry him. It can be repaired, and for the time being the other one can be used to discharge water into the Tigris.And finally experiences from the past indicate that the dam is stronger than it seems.
"Both in 1988 and 1991 the water levels almost reached maximum, only two more meters and the dam would have overflowed. The pressure on the dam was at its peak. On top of that, the Americans bombed the power plant in 1991 in their war against Saddam, putting extra stress on the dam. And despite all this, it did not break," Marwan said.
Interesting. Very Interesting.