The collapse of two dams on Monday unleashed a torrent of mud and water into the eastern Libyan city of Derna, killing thousands. More than 10,000 are feared missing in the flooding caused by Storm Daniel.
As authorities continue to carry out relief efforts, attention has turned to a 70-metre-tall dam built in the wadi, or dried river bed, upstream from the city.
The collapse of the dam led to the destruction of a second dam downstream.
The initial dam was built along the river in the 1970s by a Yugoslavian company to control seasonal floods, News Libya reported.
A 2016 webpage from the company Hidrotehnika-Hidroenergetika, now based in Serbia, describes the structure as an “embankment dam” built with rocks and clay. It said it was completed in 1977.
Derna deputy mayor Ahmed Madroud said on Wednesday that the structures had not been maintained since 2002. Public anger has risen amid rumours on social media that funds were allocated for its maintenance.
But experts have told The National that it is too early to say what exactly was behind the failure of the dam, especially as the city was hit hard in the civil war that followed the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.
Many point to the years of conflict that has led to widespread neglect of infrastructure.
"Dams in Libya and especially in the east of the country, haven't received maintenance in years and management bodies haven't provided adequate financial support and means to support the dams, which has led to adverse effects," says Malak Altaeb, a fellow at the Centre for Climate and Security, who studied at the University of Tripoli.
"Instead of protecting from flooding, the dams ended up flooding the city," she tells The National.
Climate shock
Storm Daniel caused a deluge of rain to fall on Libya, while the region also faced a summer heatwave.
Parched ground worsens flash flooding because the earth cannot quickly absorb water.
“Rainfall exceeded 100mm in just three days, where the average monthly rainfall in the whole of September is under 1.5mm,” said Reach, a data service for humanitarian emergencies.
Andy Hughes, an engineer with the Dams & Reservoirs engineering services company in the UK, said the second dam was not able to hold back the torrent after the first dam was destroyed.
“Clearly, it is a devastating tragedy with significant loss of life. It also appears to be a cascade failure – one dam causing the failure of the next dam down, like dominoes,” he says.
He said the flood probably caused “overtopping of the dam, leading to erosion and failure, which then released its contents on the next dam down".
Embankment dams, unlike watertight concrete arch or buttress dams, have been criticised as being vulnerable to extreme weather, especially when the reservoir behind the dam fills up and “overtops” the structure.
Embankment dams have a core wall, but this can become weakened as water erodes the rock and earth around it.
Torrent of mud
“If you look at the video of the destroyed dam, you can see a reinforced concrete wall, part of which is still standing but most of it has been shorn off,” said Tilman Roschinski, an expert on hydrology and geology at the Plan4Risk consultancy.
“We don’t know at this stage what the wall was designed to withstand, but it raises questions, especially on the maintenance issue, such as the quality of the concrete which can seriously deteriorate over years when exposed to water.”
Mr Tilman said that if the last flood in the area was in the early 1960s, as Libyan media has reported, fine particles of mud and silt will have built up in the area around the dam since then.
It may seem like an academic point, but he emphasised that such material, “which would normally have been washed away” by natural flooding over the decades, would have mixed with "the enormous velocity of the floodwater, greatly increasing the pressure on the dam, and increasing its destructive force".
Such muddy water can have twice the density of normal floodwater, up to 2g per cubic centimetre, he said. That equates to a kind of liquified soil with the density of sinking sand.
Mr Hughes said this called into question whether the dam designers could have anticipated a flood of this magnitude.
“Different countries have different standards for spillway design and in this country [the UK] we would design for the probable maximum flood to give the maximum protection to those downstream," he said.
“Designs of this type, if made of sand as is normally the case with a ‘wadi type’ dam, will sometimes involve the armouring of the dam to resist overtopping because the dam is above a community.”
Mr Hughes said the dam in Wadi Derna might “not have been designed to cater for the failure of an upstream dam".
A fragile state
“The Derna floods follow a pattern similar to the August 2020 Beirut port explosion and Turkey’s earthquake in March of this year – a government unable to respond to, or prevent, predictable disasters because its capacity is hollowed out by corruption, indifference and incompetence,” said Keith Mines, a former US diplomat and expert on post conflict recovery at the US Institute of Peace.
Mr Mines, who recently wrote a book on post-conflict recovery, Why Nation Building Matters, said some blame for the disaster in Libya has to lie with the international community. He referred to the wider failure to bring warring parties together and focus on rebuilding the country.
“Investing in the hard work of bringing about political settlements that create viable, self-functioning, independent and popular democratic nations that can facilitate state functions carrying out flood control, earthquake relief, and the reduction of dangerous stockpiles of munitions remains one of the fundamental pillars of global stability,” he said.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
The biog
Name: Shamsa Hassan Safar
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Degree in emergency medical services at Higher Colleges of Technology
Favourite book: Between two hearts- Arabic novels
Favourite music: Mohammed Abdu and modern Arabic songs
Favourite way to spend time off: Family visits and spending time with friends
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dooda%20Solutions%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Lebanon%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENada%20Ghanem%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20AgriTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24300%2C000%20in%20equity-free%20funding%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2011%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
POWERWASH%20SIMULATOR
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FuturLab%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESquare%20Enix%20Collective%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsole%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENintendo%20Switch%2C%3Cstrong%3E%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPlayStation%204%20%26amp%3B%205%2C%20Xbox%20Series%20X%2FS%20and%20PC%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Switch%20Foods%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202022%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Edward%20Hamod%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abu%20Dhabi%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Plant-based%20meat%20production%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2034%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%246.5%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20round%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Based%20in%20US%20and%20across%20Middle%20East%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
NBA Finals so far
(Toronto lead 3-1 in best-of-seven series_
Game 1 Raptors 118 Warriors 109
Game 2 Raptors 104 Warriors 109
Game 3 Warriors 109 Raptors 123
Game 4 Warriors 92 Raptors 105
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
'The Batman'
Stars:Robert Pattinson
Director:Matt Reeves
Rating: 5/5
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
