First I have heard of it.

a year or two now, although the concerns go back a long way. Figures I saw said as many as 10 million live in the larger flood zone. Millions could die.We haven't seen catastrophe on this scale in a long time. It could potentially dwarf the biggest recent quakes and even the Indonesian tsunami.

So damn right (or dam right) it's scary as shit. And Iraq has neither the resources,will, skill set, or social conditions to address it seriously and soon. Gotta be a global effort. It will cost enormously large amounts of money IF it can even be fixed. Put it on George Bush's tab?

Reports I've heard have serious scientists saying preemptive evacuations ought to be studied and begun.But that is even more expensive and potentially creates a refugee and famine situation that again dwarfs the current already overwhelming human wave of misery.

It is potentially a civilization threatening event at least for its region. It's so f'ing serious.

That is, unless someone *wanted* to kill millions and displace millions more and sow chaos and collapse that would easily create a global recession, trigger wars, and affect Europe and N America in seriously destabilizing ways. The scenario is not that far fetched. Add a major renewed conflict level with nuclear powers involved, throw in a few major climate driven natural disasters and shit goes pear shaped.

Most Iraqis I've known have bee decent kind folks,smart and cosmopolitan and pragmatic. Those poor people don't deserve this nightmare. But even out of self interest we should be leading a major global effort with the Chinese and Russians and Europe to address this.

Imagine what a terrorist target that dam is.

Went back and read the link. Will look for more information. Sounds as if we need to build a new dam in front of the existing one. I am horrified. The dam has been bad from the beginning. Wonder if the people living in the flood plain have any idea of the situation. Iraq cannot address the situation alone. And with Syria and the refugee problems in Europe it is clear that there is no way there can be a coordinated effort. F'ing serious says it well.

Looks like my numbers are maybe high. US DoD seems to believe the risk is half a million deaths. Still epic in scale. And likely many more deaths would cascade from famine, conflict, and economic collapse. So maybe that's where the 10 million number I mentioned above comes in. I remember hearing it stated as a serious outside risk on a legit news source because that number shocked me so much. That's the Nazi death camps or the Ukrainian famine or something of that magnitude.

Half a mil is still going to send shit our way.

I am overwhelmed at the thought. Funerals, disease, clothes, food, clean water, sanitation, schools, families --it is just overwhelming.
We cannot deal with the refugees now and here comes an enormous tragedy. Syria crept up on us. This will simply explode on us. Really, I don't know what to think. Or who to encourage in terms of action to be taken.

find money to fix that ASAP. Sorry Flint and the like.

makes this an order of magnitude worse than Flint and makes it a moral obligation for the whole world to pay for trying to stop it.

Flint is awful and the result of foreseeable consequences of conscious executive decisions. It needs to be paid for by the taxpayers of Michigan with federal backup too. But Mosul is a global threat.

In what way is the failure of a dam on the other side of the world more of a threat to us

than poisoned water here?

Do you really believe that the conditions in Flint are a one-off?

Are you speaking engineer or joking?

Why on earth would you use explosives on an unstable earthen dam? Do you mean pre-emptive release to relieve pressure or reduce catastrophic potential? If so that function is surely already designed into the dam. That's what a spillway is.

The logical emergency step would be to drain the lake behind it, maybe. But I don't know the topography or refill rate. At one point IS held that dam. A lot of the problem is that it hasn't been maintained because crews haven't been able to get to it.

The base rock is being eaten away and they are out of cement to fix anything.

The dam was only being held in place by 300 workers every day and now they have only 30 workers.

If the water level keeps rising the dam will fail and millions of people will drown,

They must open the gates now and release the water.

You were speaking engineer. Appreciated.