The unseen story behind Libya’s recent flooding

After devastating flooding wreaked havoc, Libya faces a severe crisis in its northeastern region. A powerful storm in the Mediterranean Sea ruptured two dams near Derna, releasing massive volumes of water. This disaster submerged a significant portion of the city, with a reported death toll exceeding 10,000 people and numerous others still unaccounted for. 

While climate change may appear to be the immediate cause, mounting concerns point to government corruption as the root of this catastrophe.

The two dams above Derna had posed a longstanding threat, their deteriorating condition necessitating urgent repair. Abdelwanees Ashoor, a Libyan engineering professor, warned that city residents were at risk. In a study published by the Sabha University Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences, he claimed, “In the event of a big flood, the consequences will be disastrous for the residents of the valley and the city.”

Turkish construction company Arsel Construction, contracted to address the dam’s issues, claimed project completion when work remained unfinished. Arsel abruptly left Libya in 2011 during a revolt against the nation’s dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. 

In addition, the engineers who originally constructed the dams were reportedly unaware of the high amount of rainfall in the region. Climate change has worsened the land’s aridity, reducing its capacity to absorb precipitation efficiently. Although government officials received information about the need to upgrade the dams in Derma, they ignored these warnings for years. 

Dysfunction in the Libyan government, however, represents a longstanding issue. Since 2014, the county has experienced geographical division. To the west lies a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, while the east—where Derna is geographically—falls under the control of warlord Khalifa Hifter. His affiliation with Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gadhafi, dates back to the late 1960s. 

Furthermore, Alia Brahimi, a member of the Atlantic Council and Libya researcher, unveils a subtle yet pervasive thread that binds together disparate elements of eastern Libya: military rule. “General Khalifa Hifter styles himself after Gadhafi and aspires to basically a dictatorship. So they have a stranglehold over the economy, which is one thing,” Brahimi asserted. “But the other is that they’ve weaponized development, and they kept Derna in a state of deliberate collapse as punishment for resisting Hifter’s consolidation of power over the east.”

In the face of such a calamity, these governance and accountability challenges come to the forefront, demanding swift and decisive action. The recent flooding in Libya underscores the critical intersection between natural disasters and the nation’s long-standing political problems. 

Article written by Ninia Sopromadze of Walter Johnson Highschool 

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