Libya Flood Disaster That Killed Thousands Was Decades in Making

livemint.com:

A Mediterranean city dotted with historic mosques and the ruins of a nearby Byzantine church, Derna was once a haven for artists and intellectuals in Libya. Now, it is a wasteland after a deadly storm caused floods that broke dams, swept entire buildings out to sea and killed thousands of people. The natural disaster was decades in the making—a result of years of official neglect of two nearby dams during the authoritarian regime of Moammar Gadhafi and the political crisis and war since his ouster in a 2011 revolution.

The dams, built in the 1970s, hadn’t received maintenance work in more than 20 years, Libyan officials said. Some $1.3 million allocated for their upkeep had simply evaporated, according to a 2021 report from the Libyan State Audit Bureau reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and verified by Libyan officials. Storm Daniel, which produced record-breaking rainfall in Greece, overwhelmed the dams early on Monday after hitting eastern Libya, unleashing a torrent of water that swamped the nearby port city.

The disaster has killed an estimated 6,000 people, with thousands of others missing. Bodies were piling up on the streets and authorities and relatives buried many of the dead in collective graves. Derna’s mayor said Wednesday that as many as 20,000 could have died.

On Thursday, Libya’s public prosecutor arrived in the city to carry out a criminal investigation aimed at holding account those responsible for not taking steps to avert the collapse of the dams. For many ordinary Libyans, the deadly disaster has become a symbol of misrule in a country divided between two rival governments that have neglected the basic work of maintaining state institutions and services. It has also overwhelmed the capacity of local