Libya’s Flood: A Human Made Disaster

On September 10 at midnight, two dams in the mountains above Derna collapsed sending a two-storey high wave (12,000 Olympic sized pools) of water rushing down below. The worst affected city was Derna, located in the valley below the mountains. The two dams broke due to the heavy rain from the storm Daniel which swept through Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria before making its way to Libya.

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) nearly 4000 people have died due to the flooding in Libya, and 9000 people are estimated to be missing. Whole neighborhoods were washed out to sea, and the deceased keep washing up to the shores of Derna. On top of the death toll, more than 40,000 people have been displaced across Libya due to the heavy rainfall caused by Daniel.

One of the worst parts of the situation in Libya is that most of the fatalities could have been prevented. The two dams (Abu Mansour and Al-Belad) were built by the Yugoslav construction company in the 1970s. Abu Mansour dam was 14 kilometers away from Derna, and was 74 meters high, containing up to 22.5 million cubic meters of water! Belad dam, also known as Derna dam, was much closer to the city, and containing up to 1.5 million cubic meters of water. It had been clear for years that the dams needed repairing. The residents of Derna are “extremely vulnerable to flood risk,” wrote Abdelwanees Ashoor, a hydraulic engineer at Omar Al-Mukhtar University in Libya, in a paper he published in 2022. According to local officials, the two dams hadn’t been properly maintained since their construction in the1970s! Over the years, many experts had warned government officials about the dams being dangerous, but those warnings went with no action taken.

Right now the UN, countries in Europe, and some middle eastern countries are sending help, but you can also help. You can help by donating to organizations such as UNICEF, International rescue committee, or really any other trustable charity. By just donating $5, you can make a huge difference. Imagine, if 20 people donated $5 each, they would donate $100 in total! So, just know that you can make a difference.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/world/middleeast/libya-dams-warnings.html

https://apnews.com/article/libya-derna-dams-collapse-floods-corruption-neglect-chaos-45f76d2ac76be634865539a27b518ada

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/17/africa/un-revises-libya-death-toll/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/16/world/libya-flood-death-toll-rise-derna-intl-hnk/index.html#:~:text=The%20city%20of%20Derna%20was,floodwaters%20swept%20through%20entire%20neighborhoods.&text=An%20aerial%20view%20of%20destroyed,Libya%2C%20September%2016%2C%202023.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/16/second-humanitarian-crisis-feared-in-wake-of-libya-floods-as-hopes-of-finding-survivors-fade#:~:text=Libya%20flood%3A%20international%20aid%20arrives%20as%20authorities%20open%20investigation,-WHO%20says%20aid&text=International%20aid%20is%20arriving%20in,the%20port%20city%20of%20Derna.