Rethinking The Mosul Dam: A Reassessment of Its Impact Beyond the Traditional Narratives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/JOPS/2024.3.8.099%20Keywords:
Water strategy, constructive ecologism, water cooperation, dam management, Middle EastAbstract
The Mosul Dam, one of Iraq’s most significant infrastructural projects, has been the subject of extensive debate and scrutiny, often overshadowed by negative narratives concerning its safety and environmental impact. These narratives overlook the dam’s significant function in creating food and energy and fostering local, regional, and global water cooperation. This article seeks to provide a comprehensive revaluation of the dam’s contributions to water management and diplomatic relations. By systematically addressing the prevalent criticisms, this study highlights the recent renovation works that extended the dam’s lifespan. These works, which will be examined with a quantitative methodology in the study, involved the Iraqi Government, the Kurdish Regional Government, the United States and Italy. These four entities contributed with joint efforts to make the dam safer, forging trust and collaboration on multiple levels. The Mosul Dam serves as a model for international water cooperation, illustrating the potential for large-scale infrastructure projects to contribute to peace and stability. The reassessment provided in this study advocates for a more nuanced understanding of the Mosul Dam, recognizing its pivotal contributions to water security and international cooperation, which are essential for the region’s sustainable development and beyond.
References
Adamo, Nasrat, and Nadhir Al-Ansari. 2016. “Mosul dam the full story: Engineering problems.” Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 6 (3): 213-244.
Adamo, Nasrat, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Sven Knutsson, et al. 2017. “Mosul Dam: A Catastrophe Yet to Unfold.” Engineering 9 (3): 263-278. https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2017.93014.
Al-Abayachi, Shirouk. 2016. Report on Mosul Dam, Iraqi House of Representatives. Agriculture, water, and Marshes Sub-Committee. Baghdad.
Al-Ansari, Nadhir, Nasrat Adamo, Issa E. Issa, Varoujan Sissakian, and Sven Knutsson. 2015. “Mystery of Mosul Dam the Most Dangerous Dam in the World: Karstification and Sinkholes.” Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 5 (3): 33-45.
Al-Muslih, Shehla S.Z., and Nadhir A. Al-Ansary. 2013. “Hydrological and Hydrochemical Situation of Badush Dam Site, Central North of Iraq for the Period between 1988-1990.” Iraqi Bulletin of Geological Mining 9 (1): 35-51.
Annunziato, Alessandro, Ioannis Andredakis, and Pamela Probst. 2016. “Impact of Flood by a Possible Failure of the Mosul Dam.” EU Commission: Joint Research Centre: Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen. https://doi.org/10.2788/689469.
Chin, Warren. 2019. “Technology, war and the state: past, present and future.” International Affairs 95(4): 765-783. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiz106.
Coticchia, Fabrizio, and Andrea Ruggeri. 2022. “An International Peacekeeper. The Evolution of Italian Foreign and Defence Policy.” IAI - Istituto Affari Internazionali 22 (6): 1-21.
Dryzek, John S. 2013. The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses. Oxford University Press.
Fappiano, Cayla M., and James N. Baraniuk. 2020. “Gulf War Illness Symptom Severity and Onset: A Cross-Sectional Survey.” Military Medicine 185 (7-8): e1120-e1127. https://doi.org/10.1093/milmed/usz471.
Fosnot, Catherine T. 2013. Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gerges, Fawaz A. 2016. ISIS: A History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hmaza, H. H., and Hussein Alwan Mahdi Msaewe. 2023. “Investigation of the deformations in Mosul dam by geodetic measurements of total stations and GNSSs.” AIP Conference Proceedings 2787 (1): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0148327.
Howard, Lise Morjé, and Anjali Kaushlesh Dayal. 2018. “The use of force in UN peacekeeping.” International Organization 72 (1): 71-103. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020818317000431.
Husain, Faisal H. 2021. Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelley, Julie R., Lillian D. Wakeley, Seth W. Broadfoot, et al. 2007. Geologic Setting of Mosul Dam and Its Engineering Implications. Final Report, U.S. Army Engineer District, Gulf Region, Baghdad.
Mahmood Agha, Omar M. A., and Mohammed A. Khattab. 2023. “The impact of Ilisu Dam on water flow toward Iraq and identifying the optimal operational strategy for Mosul Dam. Sustain.” Sustainable Water Resources Management 9 (112). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40899-023-00889-0.
McMahan, Jeff, and Robert McKim. 1993. “The Just War and The Gulf War.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 23 (4): 501-541. https://doi.org/10.1080/00455091.1993.10717333.
Merchant, Carolyn. 2005. Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203084212.
Milillo, Pietro, Roland Bürgmann, Paul Lundgren, et. al. 2016. “Space Geodetic Monitoring of Engineered Structures: The ongoing Destabilization of the Mosul Dam, Iraq.” Scientific Reports 6: 37408. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep37408.
Naess, Arne. 1989. Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511525599.
Obertreis, Julia, Timothy Moss, Peter Mollinga, and Christine Bichsel. 2016. “Water, infrastructure and political rule.” Water Alternatives 9 (2): 168-181. https://doi.org/10.18452/21560.
Pearce, Fred. 2014. “Mideast Water Wars: In Iraq, A Battle for Control of Water.” Yale environment 360, August 25, 2014. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://e360.yale.edu/features/mideast_water_wars_in_iraq_a_battle_for_control_of_water.
Peet, Richard, Paul Robbins, and Michael Watts (eds.). 2010. Global Political Ecology. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203842249.
Saeedrashed, Younis S., and Ali Cemal Benim. 2018. “A computational investigation of the hydrodynamics of the Badush dam in northern Iraq.” MATEC Web of Conferences 240. 04009: 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201824004009.
Sessions, George (ed.). 1995. Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century. Shambhala.
Sissakian, Varoujan K., Nadhir Al-Ansari, and Sven Knutsson. 2014. “Karstification Effect on the Stability of Mosul Dam and Its Assessment, North Iraq.” Engineering 6: 84-92. https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2014.62012.
Sissakian, Varoujan K., Nasrat Adamo, and Nadhir Al-Ansari. 2020. “Badush Dam: Planned And Designed As A Protection Dam, Nw Iraq”. Journal of Duhok University 23 (2): 31-39. https://doi.org/10.26682/csjuod.2020.23.2.3.
Sissakian, Varoujan K., Nasrat Adamo, and Nadhir Al-Ansari. 2020. “The Role of Geological Investigations for Dam Siting: Mosul Dam a Case Study.” Geotechnical and Geological Engineering 38: 2085-2096. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-019-01150-2.
Sissakian, Varoujan K., Nasrat Adamo, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Sven Knutsson, and Jan Laue. 2018. “Badush Dam, NW Iraq: A Geological Study.” Journal of Earth Sciences and Geotechnical Engineering 8 (2): 1-15.
Tercovich, Giulia. 2016. “Italy and UN Peacekeeping: Constant Transformation.” International Peacekeeping 23 (5): 681-701. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2016.1235094.
Tinti, Alessandro. 2023. “Scales of justice. Large dams and water rights in the Tigris–Euphrates basin.” Policy and Society 42 (2): 184-196. https://doi.org/10.1093/polsoc/puad003.
Trevi Foundation. 2018. “Trevi’s Challenge in Iraq: Mosul Dam.” Accessed August 29, 2024. https://www.soilmec.com/downloads/5245/684/¬FoundationDrillin_-Oct2018.pdf.
USACE. 2017. Engineering Manual EM 1110-2-3506 Engineering and Design: Grouting Technology. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://www.publications.usace.army.mil/Portals/76/-Publications/¬EngineerManuals/EM_1110-2-3506.pdf.
Warren, John K. 2006. Evaporites: Sediments, Resources and Hydrocarbons. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32344-9.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Filippo Verre
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
