Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-01-12.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are consulting the governments of Iraq, the United States and Italy about the Mosul Dam on the Tigris River, and in particular about the case for downstream flood warnings and preparations, and repairs and maintenance work, to prevent collapse.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We are in close touch with the Governments of Iraq, the US and our European partners, as well as the UN, about the Mosul Dam.
The Government of Iraq has begun to take measures to improve the structural integrity of the Mosul Dam as there is a risk the dam could fail. It is currently impossible to accurately predict if or when this might occur. A failure could lead to major flooding in the Tigris river valley, from Mosul to Baghdad.
Alongside the US, we are working with the Government of Iraq, the UN and other partners to ensure Iraq has effective contingency planning in place, including early warning and humanitarian planning, to enable ordinary Iraqis and the international community to respond in the event of failure. Our Embassy has plans to ensure staff are safe and we have updated our travel advice to highlight the risk to the general public.
