Azad Lashkari / Reuters
Iraqi engineers say the country’s massive Mosul Dam, which was built 30 years ago to control the Tigris River, could collapse at any time. Pressure has built as the water level reaches capacity and the safety gates, which were set up to relieve pressure, are jammed shut. If the dam collapses, as many as one million people could die in the ensuing flooding and panic, engineers say. For months last year, ISIS fighters had control of the dam, during which time machinery was not routinely replaced or maintained. Engineers say that chasms in the porous rock under the dam are growing, and up until the ISIS occupation it had been grouted around-the-clock by a constant team. Iraqi officials are negotiating a contract with an Italian company that could complete the urgent repairs, but a deal hasn’t been signed.