Libya Dams Were in Danger according to previous warnings

Don't blame Climate Change for the horrendously high death toll in Libya. Utter government failure is one of the primary causes!

This for many years war torn country failed to properly maintain its infrastructure. Since the assassination of flamboyant dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, this country has been a mess.

"... Torrential rains were not new. Decade after decade, they had pounded the area, washing away the soil that helped soak up water as it ran down from the dry hills above town. ...

Then, there were the decades of neglect by officials — who knew the dams needed repairs — in a country so torn by years of civil war that it still has two opposing governments: one in the west and another in the east, where Derna lies. ...

The two dams that towered over the city had been built [in the late 1970s] with the help of engineers from the former Yugoslavia, according to experts. The larger one, known as Abu Mansour, stood 74 meters high and could hold up to 22.5 million cubic meters of water. The smaller one, al-Bilad, or simply Derna dam, was built on the city’s outskirts.

During the long, autocratic reign of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, floods came and went, but the dams stood. In 1986, a major storm convulsed the region, damaging the dams and shearing soil from the ground. The structures were damaged, ... but again they held. ..."

Libya Dams Were in Danger, Engineer Warned - The New York Times “The state wasn’t interested,” said an engineer who published a paper on why Derna’s dams, after decades of postponed repairs, might fail under the stress of a powerful storm.