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You know that your dam isn't great when you have to have a back-up dam for WHEN, not IF, the original dam fails and causes a potentially catastrophic flood and that back up dam isn't even finished.
Better they learned from Murican Dam Failures eh? They may have done it wrong due to ego but they did think ahead. Murican sanctions stopped a lot of building materials getting into lraq when Saddam was in power.
35 years ago, I worked with the Badush dam for a small Swedish company that provided the sliding formwork technology for the project, right up to the Kuwait invasion. All design work stopped, and a number of our guys we're held hostage in Mosul for quite some time. It was pre-CAD time, and all construction drawings were made with pen. The "old school" way.😊
@@jezzter4293Plenty of Iraqis fought bravely against ISIS and the insurgency alongside western forces. The Iraqi people deserve better than to be generalized as all supporting terrorism when they did more to fight terrorism than you ever will.
True. But much of ISIS was staffed and organised by the Tikrit Saddam mob I would argue it's a part of the world where blood is thicker than principles with a culture of that believes in an eye for an eye. Islam is Tribalism and wants to create one big single Tribe, Islam. My friend, it's the same throughout the Middle East and it will never change. Those who fought against it were the few who realised that secular values are worth fighting for. ISIS wanted the establishment of a literal implementation of Sharia and Islamic state so to oppose them was to oppose the prophet himself. So in truth anything else is a rejection of Islam and that ain't gonna happen in a society so blinkered and inward looking.
@@jezzter4293iraq doesn't condone terrorism. Terrorists started in uraq after saddam fell. I'd you spend some time un iraq, you will find out that all terrorism was brought in from you guys. I went there 3 times last year. Everyone there knew who the real terrorists were. Saddam gated all terrorists. Go read some history
@@jezzter4293Ask any civilian living in the country that same question. A vocal hostile minority has in time done enough damage, that people see only them, and ask questions just like that. See the people, not the opressors.
Hope the people living there learn about this and are able to leave, because politicians don't act on threats if they're expensive or inconvenient to adress
As soon as you said gypsum my jaw dropped, that stuff is super soluble in water. Also I think a couple of bunker busters would take the dam out with ease.
If you compare gypsum (a mineral form of calcium sulfate) to other common bedrocks, then yes, it is considerably more soluble than most other rocks. But I would still quibble with the description of "super soluble" - the solubility of gypsum in water is between 2 and 3 grams per litre. This isn't all that much, when compared with salts you would normally consider to be soluble - even sodium chloride (the salt we use for seasoning food every day) is more than 100 times more soluble at 360 grams per litre.
@@lloydevans2900 but it is soluble in water and when you are talking about million's of litres of water and pressure even a small hole will break out into a big problem
"Could I possibly be wrong? Nah, it's the 5 other teams of professionals that are stupid" That level of narcissism and ego is to be expected from dictators, it's not surprising
Five? Try *eight.* Simon clearly said that “the first five all agreed there were better places. The *eighth time* was the charm.” Lol it’s like the telephone game… except here it’s the first idiot that completely misheard the original statement and forwards misinformation.
pretty sure he didn't mention it but it was a German-Italian consortium who eventually built the dam lead by Hochtief a German construction company, and they wanted to extend the grout deep down but because of the time limits they basically made a giant foundation of grout with the ability to add more grout as time went on. gotta hand it to the Germans even with their hands tied they can build some quality.
I was working for an Aid Organization in Iraqi Kurdistan back in 2017, and everyone feared ISIS would blow the Mosul Dam to hinder the allied offensive.
@@smalltime0You are expecting reason from jihadists that followed a corrupted version of the Quran? Reasonable people wouldn't bother bombing a dam that would eventually collapse under its own inadequacies, but ISIS was never reasonable.
No such thing as Iraqi Kurdistan. It’s Iraq. It’s clear the Zionists are determined to break up Iraq so its colonial project known as Israel has another “ally” in the region.
This definetely will happen. If you tell them "we will fix the dam for free" they would ask "sure, but how much you gonna give me?". Welcome to middle-east.
Excellent comment - it highlights the only thing Simon left out - the ongoing and extensive corruption that exists in pretty much every middle eastern government
Well, Iraq paid hundreds of billions of dollars in compensation to Iran, Kuwait and others, so a few billion dollars to repair the dam is not a very large sum for the government. Iraq does not expect any country to solve this problem for it “for free.” Some people who come from poor countries think that other countries are like them. Iraq does not want anyone to come to fix its problems. Rather, it does not want your countries that crossed the oceans to destroy and bomb it to come again! Stop your evil from us and that is enough for us @@dextermorgan1
Almost every dam has a story about workers that fell in the cement and were not removed. I haven't seen any of them verified as true, and most have been proven false.
Yup, crazy. Once a big concrete pour like that is started, you cannot stop it or you risk significant structural deficiencies. The CN Tower here in Canada was famously done in a single pour as well. It's a pretty cool concept from an engineering standpoint, but yeah, don't fall in.
45m waves are just mind-blowing! Imagine the energy unleashed to produce such a huge surge! It must be said, the reservoir footprint is truly massive. 15:15
@jordanhooper1527 Just did the math, and 3 cubic miles would be around 12.5 cubic kilometers. Not sure what's right, just started with the video, but you're probably correct
I was never able to make it up to the Mosul Dam during the 13 months I was there. I had a tasking, but, my subordinate leaders were able to supervise my Infantry Rifle Squad as an element of our platoon while we escorted some civil affairs elements there for the day for meetings with the Kurds as it is part of what was historically part of Kurdistan. When they arrived they were in basically a different world as they were allowed to ditch their body armor and BDUs and were allowed to walk around in Pt shorts and flip flops and they went swimming and then shopping in the local Kurdish town there.
Carlo Crippa, said the dam structure now showed no significant signs of distress. However, constant maintenance will be necessary, as "the rocks of the foundation are prone to dissolution due to the circulation of water." Five waterways that controlled the flow of water into the dam became operational after 12 years, with Hassan Janabi saying the water level was at the highest level since 2005. The repairs were completed by 2019. In 2022 the scheme was awarded the Outstanding Project Award by the Deep Foundations Institute.
If they are 4 hours downstream, unless the entire path is steep valley your going to get a lot of dispersion. It'll still be a massive in rush but the surge will likely be many times lower/calmer than at the dam. The other thing, its unlikely to be an explosive failure, its probably going to fail partially and get bigger with time due to erosion, giving either more time to reduce the upfront damage.
It also bothers me that when it does go it will scour down to bedrock and take a LOT of archeology with it. This long planning to put people in harm's way really stinks.
Can anyone honestly say that the dam just north of Mosul was the reason they opened up the TH-cam app? But when we know Simon’s narrating the story then suddenly we’re all interested. He’s brilliant 💯
If you are looking for another "disaster waiting in the wings," look into the regular calls for repair and upgrade of the nuclear waste storage facility at Hanford.
@@chlorineismyperfume Last time I heard about it was 6 years ago. I haven't followed since then, but I have a hard time that the US has done anything about it in that short time.
@@TheSilmarillian the real strange thing is I’m certain I left this comment on the Whatifalthist channel. It was an episode about 10 possible future wars around the world.
We had a series of earthen dams along a river in Michigan fail a couple years ago. At the first dam, it started as just a small bulge about mid bank. Within a minute it was a huge gash in the dam with the lake emptying. The second dam was wiped out shortly after.
The mention of Turkey reminded me of a news story I read a couple of years ago that Turkey planned to dam the Tigris and this could spell doom for Iraq as they would no longer get enough water. This was at a time of low rain fall and thanks to climate change we seem to be in cycles of flood and drought.
Dude. I had a really weird feeling earlier today and thought about the mosul dam after seeing all the recent flooding in the middle east.. I remember reading a lengthy article about it in 2017 and found it fascinating. I typed in Mosul Dam online and this video popped up and was posted not even 24 hours ago.. I'm just seriously weirded out right now and had to post a comment.
The fact that it's WHEN not IF the Dam breaks, with that KNOWN amount of Loss of Life? It's devastatingly sad that so many men in power put others' lives as less than their pride projects like this. I'm praying so hard for the innocent people down the river. I hope I never have to come back to this video when tragedy strikes.
It holds 3 cubic meters of water? That's like 3000L. Doing too many different channels there's absolutely no quality control on the production line that is his videos. Man really conquered TH-cam
I think it was a typo. The graphic in the corner shows that it was supposed to be 3 cubic MILES, and probably what happened was that "mi" got confused with "m" in the script. Pretty understandable if you ask me.
I remember hearing about the imminent collapse of Mosul Dam when I was deployed there from 2010-2011, and it didn't collapse. One of the main reasons is that the lack of water for the reservoir behind it. It may collapse eventually but it is amazing that year after year about the imminent collapse and it doesn't happen.
Theres another solution not discussed here; remove the dam... It would cost much less than trying to save it and would, once complete, eliminate the threat entirely which is something no fix can claim. But of course, nobody wants to do that because of all the benefits they get from it. But you said it best in the video, for a potential million lives saved, no cost should be too high. They are absolutely putting those gains above those risked lives and making it someone else's problem to solve.
Also a half step to that is just lowering the amount of water impounded, lowering the risk if failure, but keeping some of the benefits. Probably also would make the back up dam more viable.
I was thinking the same thing but wasn't sure if that was possible. I know basically nothing about hydroelectric dams so thought maybe it was too obvious if a solution to be viable or surely they would've done it by now, wasn't thinking about all the electricity they'd lose. How many solar panels would it take to match the hydroelectric? And couldn't they slap those up while they un-build the dam? Lol
@@ivarwind And the irrigation. And the jobs and food and electricity, but hey, wouldn't you be first in line to live in that desert on those terms? I mean, sure, go back to tents and camels. It's so romantic. :)
I live about an hour’s drive from Johnstown, PA. That town knows a thing or two about what happens when you neglect the danger of a dam collapsing. It is not advised. 😬
I read an article on the U.S. Army website that said the dam was a “well-designed and well-constructed dam that is unique in that it requires continuous maintenance grouting operations due to the water-soluble geology under the dam.” That doesn’t sound well-designed or well-constructed. Also this whole situation reminds me of the Onion video about a memorial for a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.
It is funny that people assumed that misstatement about "3 cubic meters" had to be read as 3 million cubic meters. In fact, instead of misspoken "meter" there should be "mile". Which converst to 11 billion cubic meters, not 3 million cubic meters.
Or like in the west taxed and working towards total surveillance much the same I guess, by the way choppers beat the air into submission to stay airborne works for them .
They did that already on the Warographics Channel. Except they were saying it was a strategic target rather than a natural disaster. th-cam.com/video/7oLikHJogqQ/w-d-xo.html
The problem, my friend is that Iraq is a Mono-economic country. It depends on oil alone to generate money. That is a problem when you have the majority of the population as employees. You basically selling oil to pay for your employees. Any infrastructure project requires a lot of money, and it's not good if you already spent all of your money on paychecks. Also, the political infrastructure of the country is really bad. You need politicians who are savvy to run a country like Iraq, and not fat cats with no political experience.
As I recall there was an Italian consortium that was forever pumping grout into the dam foundations in order to stabilise what it is built on. Is that still the case?
While sudden catastrophic dam failures have happened, they are actually quite rare occurances with large dams. It is far more likely that advanced warning would result from increasingly bad signs, allowing for time to reduce levels and get people out of the path.
Gee, I'm no dam engineer, nor have I spent a damn night in a Holiday Inn™, but couldn't the Iraqis you know, sort of dump out half or so of the impounded water- keep a margin that will provide hydro and irrigation, continue doing the grouting but give up on the idea of the long term drought bank that the gigantic reservoir provides. .This would reduce the level of catastrophe should it occur for the decade while the downstream dam is finished... Why can't Iraq sell some of her oil to buy a new damn dam?
the highly increased flowrate could deteriorate the downstream river and obviously rise its water level. one would risk collapsing the dam way too soon, and the other means flooded cities. not 8m deep flooded cities, but bad enough to evacuate everyone
It's not a case of not being able to afford it, but of not considering a future disaster as their responsibility. A "whelp, not my problem" attitude. It reflects the same attitude they had towards the workers who died in construction.
Workers were left in the hardening concrete to avoid delays?!? that is some fantasy level evilness, even Sarumans orks would unite under that circumstances.
Well this certainly brings back memories of the war. I was stationed just south of Mosul in Hamam Al'alieul. Right along the river. I honestly hope that dam breaks, because everything south of it is bone dry with remnants of where rivers once were.
a similar situation hangs over the Aswan dam in Egypt, but not through faulty building (it was Russia who built it). The dam is located in an earthquake zone - in 1990 or so, the Israelis estimated that, should it collapse, a very high wall of water would wash away the entire Nile valley north of it, Cairo itself, and almost all of the delta. As someone said back in 1990, dams are more damn problems than they're worth.
@@TheJadeJester No doubt the US is twisted at times in their foreign policy. On the other hand, they kept the seas safe for 80 years after WW2, allowing commerce to thrive which lifted countless millions out of poverty. Pick your poison.
@@TheJadeJester If you think US foreign policy is without fault, you are mistaken. On the whole, however, the US has done far more good for the world than anyone else.
I swam in the Mosul Dam Reservoir in 2008-09. The dam looked like it could fall apart at any second even back then. My first wedding ring fell off my finger and is at the bottom of that reservoir lol
I just happened across your "ahoy hoy" video from 7 yrs ago…. Came to this video because it was what I happened upon next to leave a comment, you've come a long way
Ironically, megaprojects could have spent the time and money required to make this video on an effort to get something going. Maybe fundraising or something else if they really cared
@@joethestrat I'm not saying they should or shouldn't. I'm just saying they seem "concerned" for the well-being of Iraq and they people. If they actually were concerned, why not do something, instead of just making a video
The problems: #1 It's a vanity project built by a tyrant. I find it interesting that it has become a serious strategic location, in large part because it is at such risk of failure. The best way to prevent the catastrophe is to lower the level of the reservoir. That's it. Just eliminate the source of the problem. If you can completely drain it, you can dry out the area around the dam and then be able to put the required curtain by the dam and then maybe have it operate correctly.
dont be surprised, the value of human life in that part of the world is quite low, and ill bet the highly paid Europeans didnt walk off the job seeing that happen either.
Remember, Iraq is an ancient country/ culture with a long memory. A big problem with Iraq is the British drew a circle around a bunch of tribes that don't really get along and called it a single country. They'll be fighting until the country breaks apart into its natural tribal states (countries).
The wheel, the writing system, mathematics and numbers, the battery, and thousands of other inventions came out of Iraq. An elementary student knows more than you in world history. Here is a list for you to read what came out of Iraq : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Science_and_technology_in_Iraq
It all starts making sense when you take into consideration that Mosul is in southern Kurdistan. Where the Iraqi government for decades has been trying to eliminate the people.
@calebbearup4282 No, it doesn’t make sense because Mosul is not a part of southern Kurdistan, most of mosul’s population is arab. and most importantly as you saw in the video, the flood would only damage the cities on tigris river which are Iraqi arab including Baghdad.
@@hamzah.1111 well. A simple look at the map shows that the capital of Kurdistan (Erbil) is about 90 KM southeast of Mosul. So if Mosul is not in southern Kurdistan where would you say it is? Northern Kurdistan? Western Kurdistan?
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Wow the Russians blew a monster in Ukraine..
Some 4 years ago the "big hit" was "Faillure of China's Three Gordes Dam"_ A Catastrophe Waiting To Happen". Problem was, it didn't happen.
⚠️⚠️Savekerala⚠️⚠️from📛130 yrs old ⛑️⛑️ Mullaperiyar😭😭dam collapse 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 please do a awarness video on this
We r caught up between political pimping between 2 state governments in India 🇮🇳
You know that your dam isn't great when you have to have a back-up dam for WHEN, not IF, the original dam fails and causes a potentially catastrophic flood and that back up dam isn't even finished.
Or when you're continuously pumping concrete into fissures 24/7 for years.
LoL
and then too stupid to finish it.
@@Davidautofullit's hard when countries like yours and turkey don't let it breath and stole all of its resources
Better they learned from Murican Dam Failures eh? They may have done it wrong due to ego but they did think ahead. Murican sanctions stopped a lot of building materials getting into lraq when Saddam was in power.
I vote we just call it Sad dam
Beat me to it but you shoulda capitalized Dam. That Pitiful God Damn Sad Dam that almost went KaBlam 🌋
🥁📌🎯
😂👍🏻
@@petterbirgersson4489you beat me to it 🥁
Damn!!!
35 years ago, I worked with the Badush dam for a small Swedish company that provided the sliding formwork technology for the project, right up to the Kuwait invasion. All design work stopped, and a number of our guys we're held hostage in Mosul for quite some time. It was pre-CAD time, and all construction drawings were made with pen. The "old school" way.😊
I hope your friends ok. Why should anyone help a country like this? They think terrorism is acceptable
@@jezzter4293Plenty of Iraqis fought bravely against ISIS and the insurgency alongside western forces. The Iraqi people deserve better than to be generalized as all supporting terrorism when they did more to fight terrorism than you ever will.
True.
But much of ISIS was staffed and organised by the Tikrit Saddam mob I would argue it's a part of the world where blood is thicker than principles with a culture of that believes in an eye for an eye.
Islam is Tribalism and wants to create one big single Tribe, Islam.
My friend, it's the same throughout the Middle East and it will never change.
Those who fought against it were the few who realised that secular values are worth fighting for.
ISIS wanted the establishment of a literal implementation of Sharia and Islamic state so to oppose them was to oppose the prophet himself.
So in truth anything else is a rejection of Islam and that ain't gonna happen in a society so blinkered and inward looking.
@@jezzter4293iraq doesn't condone terrorism. Terrorists started in uraq after saddam fell. I'd you spend some time un iraq, you will find out that all terrorism was brought in from you guys. I went there 3 times last year. Everyone there knew who the real terrorists were. Saddam gated all terrorists. Go read some history
@@jezzter4293Ask any civilian living in the country that same question. A vocal hostile minority has in time done enough damage, that people see only them, and ask questions just like that. See the people, not the opressors.
RIP to all those in the future that perish to this preventable problem that we’ve known about for 40 years.
There's a onion video about this exact thing
The cost is $4000 per life saved. I think the world has cheaper ways to save lives.
True. So sad.
Hope the people living there learn about this and are able to leave, because politicians don't act on threats if they're expensive or inconvenient to adress
When, not if
As soon as you said gypsum my jaw dropped, that stuff is super soluble in water. Also I think a couple of bunker busters would take the dam out with ease.
Gypsum takes a long time to dissolve especially depending on the host rock it is in and wether that’s carbonate or a silt/mudstone
Well, this particular dam was built in 1988. Is 36 years long enough? 😉@@CodyRoach-pu1mp
@@CodyRoach-pu1mp If there's been seepage on the downstream side only months after the dam was completed it's really just waiting to fail completely.
If you compare gypsum (a mineral form of calcium sulfate) to other common bedrocks, then yes, it is considerably more soluble than most other rocks. But I would still quibble with the description of "super soluble" - the solubility of gypsum in water is between 2 and 3 grams per litre. This isn't all that much, when compared with salts you would normally consider to be soluble - even sodium chloride (the salt we use for seasoning food every day) is more than 100 times more soluble at 360 grams per litre.
@@lloydevans2900 but it is soluble in water and when you are talking about million's of litres of water and pressure even a small hole will break out into a big problem
When you have to ask five nation's worth of engineers to get a yes, and you build it anyway, you get Tacoma Narrows level of comedic stupidity.
"Could I possibly be wrong? Nah, it's the 5 other teams of professionals that are stupid"
That level of narcissism and ego is to be expected from dictators, it's not surprising
And the video implying anyone else has to help is funny. Everyone is literally waiting for it to happen to say : "told you so"
True
Five? Try *eight.* Simon clearly said that “the first five all agreed there were better places. The *eighth time* was the charm.” Lol it’s like the telephone game… except here it’s the first idiot that completely misheard the original statement and forwards misinformation.
@@joshh535 Even better, they ignored the recommendations of the eighth team!
1:30 - Mid roll ads
3:05 - Chapter 1 - The construction; the history
7:10 - Chapter 2 - The problems
14:20 - Chapter 3 - If the dam breaks
How many pairs of glasses does Simon have?
Lol why would you even Skip chapter 1 or 2 to watch 3
@@josekentucky86 Same amount as he has channels.
pretty sure he didn't mention it but it was a German-Italian consortium who eventually built the dam lead by Hochtief a German construction company, and they wanted to extend the grout deep down but because of the time limits they basically made a giant foundation of grout with the ability to add more grout as time went on. gotta hand it to the Germans even with their hands tied they can build some quality.
I was working for an Aid Organization in Iraqi Kurdistan back in 2017, and everyone feared ISIS would blow the Mosul Dam to hinder the allied offensive.
Why waste the explosives?
@@smalltime0You are expecting reason from jihadists that followed a corrupted version of the Quran?
Reasonable people wouldn't bother bombing a dam that would eventually collapse under its own inadequacies, but ISIS was never reasonable.
No such thing as Iraqi Kurdistan. It’s Iraq. It’s clear the Zionists are determined to break up Iraq so its colonial project known as Israel has another “ally” in the region.
I'm glad you're here to tell the tale.
What were you aiding?
6 years from now when the dam collapses, everyone would be back here in the comment section.
you are being quite optimistic lol
Assuming they don't erase it long before then.
Hello to my future self.
The Russia trolls will be having a field day to somehow blame it on the West
it was pointed out for years but it isn't likely to happen, they monitor it constantly now including western experts, they fix issues constantly
This definetely will happen. If you tell them "we will fix the dam for free" they would ask "sure, but how much you gonna give me?". Welcome to middle-east.
Underrated comment
This is their problem. We have enough of our own right now.
I'm sure they've figured out why it's the fault of the USA in advance.
Excellent comment - it highlights the only thing Simon left out - the ongoing and extensive corruption that exists in pretty much every middle eastern government
Well, Iraq paid hundreds of billions of dollars in compensation to Iran, Kuwait and others, so a few billion dollars to repair the dam is not a very large sum for the government. Iraq does not expect any country to solve this problem for it “for free.” Some people who come from poor countries think that other countries are like them. Iraq does not want anyone to come to fix its problems. Rather, it does not want your countries that crossed the oceans to destroy and bomb it to come again! Stop your evil from us and that is enough for us @@dextermorgan1
This was a good dam documentary
Or a damn good documentary, depending on your perspective.
rather a bad dam documentary. a seriously really bad dam
Baddam!
(tush!)
Or a damn good dam documentary.
A damn good bad dam documentary
6:05 "the dam holds nearly 3 cubic meters of water" 🤣
I had to go back and listen to that three times. Just to make sure I heard it right.
Came looking for if someone else noticed this :P pretty sure it should have been miles!
@@Stayvasaur3 cubic million meters 🙂
for a slip second i thought i was watching a ytp video and the "million" was cut out
Big whoop, so does my bathtub.
I'm seriously amazed this rickety old thing hasn't disintegrated (or been intentionally breached) already.
"A catastrophe waiting to happen" is an apt description for pretty much everything in Iraq. lmfao
It's kind of a problem with all of that..
The Middle East: "you just gestured at all of me"
L😂L
I would like to laugh at Iraq but we had charges set to an important dam 5 hours od drive from where I live just 30 years ago..
Imagine living all these years in a god awful desert just to drown to death
The irony.
@@bjoardar You had to point out the obvious. Pedantic.
Iraq isn’t a desert it’s just the western side
So the dam has Chinese workers permanently part of its cement structure because rescuing them would waste time? That’s hardcore.
Dark humor, but they did indeed contribute heavily to tofu-dreg construction, with Chinese Characteristic since Ancient Times.
Almost every dam has a story about workers that fell in the cement and were not removed. I haven't seen any of them verified as true, and most have been proven false.
@@persnikitty3570 Dark Humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.
Yup, crazy. Once a big concrete pour like that is started, you cannot stop it or you risk significant structural deficiencies. The CN Tower here in Canada was famously done in a single pour as well. It's a pretty cool concept from an engineering standpoint, but yeah, don't fall in.
thjose concrete parts of dam wil NEVER ever cute they will remain quazi cored
45m waves are just mind-blowing! Imagine the energy unleashed to produce such a huge surge! It must be said, the reservoir footprint is truly massive. 15:15
Every day I find a new channel narrated by this guy
And none of them edit his inhales.
@kyle857 why did you just do this to me?
3:00 the construction; the history
7:05 the problems
14:14 if the dam breaks
correction! WHEN the dam breaks. Not if
@@MrGoesBoom yeah
the way that several people dying and being encased within the cement of the dam is just a FOOTNOTE in this whole saga. yikes
3 cubic meters? How you get 750 megawatts from that little water is beyond me😂😅
I think he meant 3 cubic miles, but yes this was very amusing
@@jordanhooper1527 kilometers but yeah yeah I giggled but good on that
3 cubic kilometers
@@FrankDarrinno I do think it's 3Miles, because they then state ~11 cubic KM afterwards and the graphic shows 3Mi, 11.6KM
@jordanhooper1527
Just did the math,
and 3 cubic miles would be around 12.5 cubic kilometers.
Not sure what's right, just started with the video,
but you're probably correct
The busiest man on TH-cam. Well, busiest narrator, that is.
He turned int buzzfeed.
@@AL-lh2htTerrible comparison.
@@AL-lh2ht havent heard that word for a long time.
M @@overseer5660
They need to edit out his constant quick inhales. That is basic practice for professional presentations.
I was never able to make it up to the Mosul Dam during the 13 months I was there. I had a tasking, but, my subordinate leaders were able to supervise my Infantry Rifle Squad as an element of our platoon while we escorted some civil affairs elements there for the day for meetings with the Kurds as it is part of what was historically part of Kurdistan. When they arrived they were in basically a different world as they were allowed to ditch their body armor and BDUs and were allowed to walk around in Pt shorts and flip flops and they went swimming and then shopping in the local Kurdish town there.
I'm amazed at the conservative casualty projections!!! I'm also shocked that I was completely unaware of it and its troubled history...🤔
For people who put baby mice in wine, putting people in dams seems par for the course
That part lowkey confused me like did they just leave the people and eventually bodies where they fell and continue to cover them w cement???
@@briannam3140 kamikaze engineers are a hardcore bunch
@@briannam3140 pretty much. Once a big pour is started, you cannot stop it or the whole project is ruined.
Thanks for the honest and thoughtful analysis.
Another Simon channel discovered. This is a great day.
Carlo Crippa, said the dam structure now showed no significant signs of distress. However, constant maintenance will be necessary, as "the rocks of the foundation are prone to dissolution due to the circulation of water." Five waterways that controlled the flow of water into the dam became operational after 12 years, with Hassan Janabi saying the water level was at the highest level since 2005. The repairs were completed by 2019. In 2022 the scheme was awarded the Outstanding Project Award by the Deep Foundations Institute.
If they are 4 hours downstream, unless the entire path is steep valley your going to get a lot of dispersion. It'll still be a massive in rush but the surge will likely be many times lower/calmer than at the dam. The other thing, its unlikely to be an explosive failure, its probably going to fail partially and get bigger with time due to erosion, giving either more time to reduce the upfront damage.
It also bothers me that when it does go it will scour down to bedrock and take a LOT of archeology with it. This long planning to put people in harm's way really stinks.
So glad i am a US citizen now. I do not miss being Iraqi at all.
Cool, wish you the best in the USA.
Can anyone honestly say that the dam just north of Mosul was the reason they opened up the TH-cam app? But when we know Simon’s narrating the story then suddenly we’re all interested. He’s brilliant 💯
If you are looking for another "disaster waiting in the wings," look into the regular calls for repair and upgrade of the nuclear waste storage facility at Hanford.
Is that project still not functioning well?
@@chlorineismyperfume Last time I heard about it was 6 years ago. I haven't followed since then, but I have a hard time that the US has done anything about it in that short time.
Thank you , I knew nothing about this dam . Feel sorry for the people downstream.
At least you’re not calling it eyerak anymore
Swapped that for Tigg-riss instead 😒
Thanks so much for creating and sharing this informative video. Great job. Keep it up.
Never heard it called the Tig-riss before!
It is in a country people in the empire cannot find on a map, this terrible event is bound to happen. Nice video. Keep up the good work.
As the great philosopher Jim Morrison said “the futures uncertain, the end is always near”
Yep people are strange.
@@TheSilmarillian the real strange thing is I’m certain I left this comment on the Whatifalthist channel. It was an episode about 10 possible future wars around the world.
@@TheSilmarillianOnly humans produce philosophers, that's true.
We had a series of earthen dams along a river in Michigan fail a couple years ago. At the first dam, it started as just a small bulge about mid bank. Within a minute it was a huge gash in the dam with the lake emptying. The second dam was wiped out shortly after.
It's hard to believe it happens that fast even with TH-cam. Truly a need.
Wow people fell in the wet concrete And they didn't stop to save them just because it might harden?... That's completely fkd up
Petition to rename it Saddam Dam after it collapses
Rather Sad Dam, eh?
The mention of Turkey reminded me of a news story I read a couple of years ago that Turkey planned to dam the Tigris and this could spell doom for Iraq as they would no longer get enough water. This was at a time of low rain fall and thanks to climate change we seem to be in cycles of flood and drought.
Turkey has built a lot of dams. Syria has/had a drought too, that caused part of the instability that then erupted into civil war.
Don't fall for the propaganda.
"thanks to climate we seem to be in cycles of flood and drought."
fixed it for ya
Lol the flat Earthers found your comment.
Dude. I had a really weird feeling earlier today and thought about the mosul dam after seeing all the recent flooding in the middle east.. I remember reading a lengthy article about it in 2017 and found it fascinating. I typed in Mosul Dam online and this video popped up and was posted not even 24 hours ago.. I'm just seriously weirded out right now and had to post a comment.
"3 cubic metres of water" HUGE! 3 cubic miles perhaps? Crest length appears to be about 2 km, not 3.4km.
The fact that it's WHEN not IF the Dam breaks, with that KNOWN amount of Loss of Life? It's devastatingly sad that so many men in power put others' lives as less than their pride projects like this. I'm praying so hard for the innocent people down the river. I hope I never have to come back to this video when tragedy strikes.
It holds 3 cubic meters of water? That's like 3000L. Doing too many different channels there's absolutely no quality control on the production line that is his videos. Man really conquered TH-cam
I think it was a typo. The graphic in the corner shows that it was supposed to be 3 cubic MILES, and probably what happened was that "mi" got confused with "m" in the script. Pretty understandable if you ask me.
Its a typo, on the infographic it says 3 cubic miles. Calm down
I remember hearing about the imminent collapse of Mosul Dam when I was deployed there from 2010-2011, and it didn't collapse. One of the main reasons is that the lack of water for the reservoir behind it. It may collapse eventually but it is amazing that year after year about the imminent collapse and it doesn't happen.
Theres another solution not discussed here; remove the dam... It would cost much less than trying to save it and would, once complete, eliminate the threat entirely which is something no fix can claim. But of course, nobody wants to do that because of all the benefits they get from it. But you said it best in the video, for a potential million lives saved, no cost should be too high. They are absolutely putting those gains above those risked lives and making it someone else's problem to solve.
Also a half step to that is just lowering the amount of water impounded, lowering the risk if failure, but keeping some of the benefits. Probably also would make the back up dam more viable.
@@SnowmanTF2 this was I thought I had also. Why not drain some of the dam down new rivers and canals?
My thought too - drain the reservoir. What then happens to the dam, doesn't matter much, but of course you lose the power generation.
I was thinking the same thing but wasn't sure if that was possible. I know basically nothing about hydroelectric dams so thought maybe it was too obvious if a solution to be viable or surely they would've done it by now, wasn't thinking about all the electricity they'd lose. How many solar panels would it take to match the hydroelectric? And couldn't they slap those up while they un-build the dam? Lol
@@ivarwind And the irrigation. And the jobs and food and electricity, but hey, wouldn't you be first in line to live in that desert on those terms? I mean, sure, go back to tents and camels. It's so romantic. :)
I live about an hour’s drive from Johnstown, PA. That town knows a thing or two about what happens when you neglect the danger of a dam collapsing. It is not advised. 😬
lol at 6:08 you said the damn can hold Three Cubic Meters of water
Was a slip of tongue not caught in editing. Says 3 cubic miles of water
I read an article on the U.S. Army website that said the dam was a “well-designed and well-constructed dam that is unique in that it requires continuous maintenance grouting operations due to the water-soluble geology under the dam.” That doesn’t sound well-designed or well-constructed. Also this whole situation reminds me of the Onion video about a memorial for a disaster that hasn’t happened yet.
This is the *only* channel I watch at *slower* than normal speed - .75x.
I was looking for exactly this comment 😂
It makes me think of the Derna dam collapse in Libya last year. Relatively a small dam, but it killed thousands, maybe tens of thousands.
6:04 Wait, what? "Nearly three cubic meters of water"...?
It is funny that people assumed that misstatement about "3 cubic meters" had to be read as 3 million cubic meters. In fact, instead of misspoken "meter" there should be "mile". Which converst to 11 billion cubic meters, not 3 million cubic meters.
Its holding back 3 cubic metres of water.... Seems a bit overkill 😂
Brilliant video, thank you for your humanity!
A fine example of the inability of authoritarian strongmen to impose their will on anything that can't be intimidated or beaten into submission.
Or like in the west taxed and working towards total surveillance much the same I guess, by the way choppers beat the air into submission to stay airborne works for them .
@@TheSilmarillian Nothing like the planned AI total surveillance of their long desert project in another of these videos.
Yea that and 20 years of war can fuck up a nation
Mongols: “ok well that’s ONE way to do it, BUT with some shovels you can just dig right over…”
Do a similar video for if the three gorges dam were to fail from an earthquake!
They did that already on the Warographics Channel. Except they were saying it was a strategic target rather than a natural disaster.
th-cam.com/video/7oLikHJogqQ/w-d-xo.html
I don't think I've ever watched a video that has left me as fearful as this one.
I think you meant 3 cubic miles, not meters Simon 😂
Well said at the end there Simon
Can't they just slowly let all the water out 🤔
Sure, if they no longer needed the hydro-power and irrigation the dam provides. Which is the unchanged reason they built the dam in the first place.
No, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move, ooh
Excellent song
The problem, my friend is that Iraq is a Mono-economic country. It depends on oil alone to generate money. That is a problem when you have the majority of the population as employees. You basically selling oil to pay for your employees. Any infrastructure project requires a lot of money, and it's not good if you already spent all of your money on paychecks.
Also, the political infrastructure of the country is really bad. You need politicians who are savvy to run a country like Iraq, and not fat cats with no political experience.
As I recall there was an Italian consortium that was forever pumping grout into the dam foundations in order to stabilise what it is built on. Is that still the case?
Couldn't they just.. drain the reservoir by continually releasing large amounts of water should the situation get too bad?
Where do you think the released water would go? Supersaturated ground just floods.
@@653j521 Water goes down the river and ultimately into the ocean, you genius😂🤣😂
Rivers aren't running at their maximum capacity most of the time.
"Who did agree to build the new death trap" a tad more on the nose than say, foreshadowing 😂😂😂
So those chinese workers are entombed inside the dam structure?
That really hit me, what a horrible way to die
I imagine it doesn't do well for a dam to basically have human body sized holes in it.
@@Fireballun You can ask them how the structure is doing from inside!
@Fireballun which is why it didn't happen...
@@Fireballun yea that's what i was thinking, but how else could they have died if pouring concrete wasn't even stopped?
While sudden catastrophic dam failures have happened, they are actually quite rare occurances with large dams. It is far more likely that advanced warning would result from increasingly bad signs, allowing for time to reduce levels and get people out of the path.
Mosul dam the only dam with human rebar
Almost all dams got humans in it
If u fall in theres no getting u out
That we know of.
@@IanPendleton-gh6ox Apparently some went into construction as dead bodies in mob killings.
Very well put together. Usually the Chinese would be jumping in there. Belt and road, or, ball and chain.
Gee, I'm no dam engineer, nor have I spent a damn night in a Holiday Inn™, but couldn't the Iraqis you know, sort of dump out half or so of the impounded water- keep a margin that will provide hydro and irrigation, continue doing the grouting but give up on the idea of the long term drought bank that the gigantic reservoir provides. .This would reduce the level of catastrophe should it occur for the decade while the downstream dam is finished... Why can't Iraq sell some of her oil to buy a new damn dam?
the highly increased flowrate could deteriorate the downstream river and obviously rise its water level. one would risk collapsing the dam way too soon, and the other means flooded cities. not 8m deep flooded cities, but bad enough to evacuate everyone
It's not a case of not being able to afford it, but of not considering a future disaster as their responsibility. A "whelp, not my problem" attitude. It reflects the same attitude they had towards the workers who died in construction.
Adding seawater to the quick lime will surely give the strength, some serious ventilation 😊
Workers were left in the hardening concrete to avoid delays?!? that is some fantasy level evilness, even Sarumans orks would unite under that circumstances.
Every big dam has those stories, and I have yet to find one that is true.
Fantasy is the right word. Just urban legend.
" Just a matter of time ".
" Could happen any day now ".
" I am confidence it will happen ".
Well this certainly brings back memories of the war. I was stationed just south of Mosul in Hamam Al'alieul. Right along the river. I honestly hope that dam breaks, because everything south of it is bone dry with remnants of where rivers once were.
Well, as an iraqi living downstream, I sure hope it doesn't
a similar situation hangs over the Aswan dam in Egypt, but not through faulty building (it was Russia who built it). The dam is located in an earthquake zone - in 1990 or so, the Israelis estimated that, should it collapse, a very high wall of water would wash away the entire Nile valley north of it, Cairo itself, and almost all of the delta. As someone said back in 1990, dams are more damn problems than they're worth.
Iraq's bad times started when they invaded Kuwait. The US kicked their ass for that then it was all downhill.
Shame about that guy Saddam the US supported….
@@TheJadeJester No doubt the US is twisted at times in their foreign policy. On the other hand, they kept the seas safe for 80 years after WW2, allowing commerce to thrive which lifted countless millions out of poverty. Pick your poison.
@@TheJadeJester If you think US foreign policy is without fault, you are mistaken. On the whole, however, the US has done far more good for the world than anyone else.
I swam in the Mosul Dam Reservoir in 2008-09. The dam looked like it could fall apart at any second even back then. My first wedding ring fell off my finger and is at the bottom of that reservoir lol
How many times did you comment on the 2 US involved wars as a threat to the damn but never comment on the decade of war between Iran and Iraq?
Probably because the dam was under construction for most of that period. It came into service in 86 and the war ended in 88. Just a thought
Cement is the dry powdery grey stuff that goes into concrete.
So the Dam is damned
I just happened across your "ahoy hoy" video from 7 yrs ago…. Came to this video because it was what I happened upon next to leave a comment, you've come a long way
I wondered something. Have any videos ever been gone after by evil people called out in videos?
Ironically, megaprojects could have spent the time and money required to make this video on an effort to get something going. Maybe fundraising or something else if they really cared
@@queueeeee9000 Why should they or anyone else pay for a fool's mission?
@@joethestrat I'm not saying they should or shouldn't.
I'm just saying they seem "concerned" for the well-being of Iraq and they people. If they actually were concerned, why not do something, instead of just making a video
@@queueeeee9000Like what?
@@queueeeee9000 Raise money for something nobody knows about? Good luck with that!
The problems: #1 It's a vanity project built by a tyrant. I find it interesting that it has become a serious strategic location, in large part because it is at such risk of failure. The best way to prevent the catastrophe is to lower the level of the reservoir. That's it. Just eliminate the source of the problem. If you can completely drain it, you can dry out the area around the dam and then be able to put the required curtain by the dam and then maybe have it operate correctly.
So they just left the Chinese workers in the concrete to this day? 😮
You could have at least played when the levee breaks by led Zeppelin during your course of your monologue
How long does it take to get someone out of wet cement? Tf is wrong with people?
Those stories are generally not true. You hear them about every big dam.
When you see in China how they install AC Units on side of building you understand China LOL - Russians do it too :>)
dont be surprised, the value of human life in that part of the world is quite low, and ill bet the highly paid Europeans didnt walk off the job seeing that happen either.
Should've called it the Sad Dam.
I’d advise against going with the Chinese.
When the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay…
Remember, Iraq is an ancient country/ culture with a long memory.
A big problem with Iraq is the British drew a circle around a bunch of tribes that don't really get along and called it a single country. They'll be fighting until the country breaks apart into its natural tribal states (countries).
tomorrow:
simon: "the timing, was almost eerie"
I highly trust their incompetence. Nothing good has come out of Iraq in the past thousand years besides black expensive mud.
The wheel, the writing system, mathematics and numbers, the battery, and thousands of other inventions came out of Iraq. An elementary student knows more than you in world history. Here is a list for you to read what came out of Iraq :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Science_and_technology_in_Iraq
Another fascinating presentation.
It all starts making sense when you take into consideration that Mosul is in southern Kurdistan. Where the Iraqi government for decades has been trying to eliminate the people.
@calebbearup4282 No, it doesn’t make sense because Mosul is not a part of southern Kurdistan, most of mosul’s population is arab.
and most importantly as you saw in the video, the flood would only damage the cities on tigris river which are Iraqi arab including Baghdad.
😂😂🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@hamzah.1111 well. A simple look at the map shows that the capital of Kurdistan (Erbil) is about 90 KM southeast of Mosul.
So if Mosul is not in southern Kurdistan where would you say it is? Northern Kurdistan? Western Kurdistan?
@@calebbearup4282 Southern Kurdistan or Kurdistan region of Iraq or Bashur all refer to the same area that Mosul is not a part of.