(Credit: Nikolay Nikolov/The New York Times)
Over the weekend, torrential downpours caused two dams to burst near the coastal city of Derna, with the death toll currently at around 11,000 people and thousands more still missing. Whole buildings were destroyed and cars were swept away, blocking exit routes, and are now restricting rescue aids and first responders from being able to get to people. The storm had previously passed through Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria, killing around a dozen people, so one should wonder, what was different about Libya's situation and infrastructure that caused so many deaths?
Over the past 10 years, Libya has experienced multiple wars, political strifes, and power struggles, resulting in the diverting of funds from things like their infrastructure. The money, however, isn't the problem, as Libya has access to the largest oil and gas reserves on the African continent. A 2021 brief from the Climate Security Expert Network suggested that an intense storm would put the country at risk of severe infrastructural damages, yet the project to fix it was put on the back burner. The budgets for the dam to be repaired were reportedly allocated, but no contractor was ever there. Later, hydrologist Abdul Wanis Ashour came out and stated that in his research on the dams he found problems "in the cracks present", but that none of the political elites in his country who knew about the problems did anything about them.
(Credit: Deutsche Welle)
In my opinion, the Libyan government should have done a lot more to prevent the loss of its citizens and destruction of its infrastructure, but due to its overwhelming complacency it wasn't able to. There were extremely poor warning and evacuation notices that didn't do their job and weren't enforced by the authorities. I feel that in the future in order to prevent tragedies like this from occurring, there must be laws put in place to ensure the safety of a countries people. Hopefully this unfortunate tragedy will serve as a warning for other countries who are putting themselves in the same position, preventing it from happening to any other unsuspecting and innocent people.
Through this event, one can identify parallels to the U.S.'s early development as an independent nation. The framers of the constitution were primarily focused on deciding how to regulate power within the country, developing a system of checks and balances and a separation of powers. They only later implemented the Bill of Rights, which defined people's individual freedoms. Similarly, Libya has focused on the struggle of power rather than the protection of its people.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/middleeast/lethal-factors-leading-to-libya-floods-intl/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/world/middleeast/libya-dams-warnings.html
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/they-knew-fury-libyans-that-warnings-went-unheeded-before-flood-2023-09-15/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/world/middleeast/libya-floods-dams-collapse.html
5 comments:
The tragedy of this situation cannot be understated. I don't think I've ever heard of bursting dams killing this many people, possibly a testament to the Libyan situation. As long as I have heard about the country it has rarely been positive, most recent history has surrounded its political instability, such as its dictator Gaddafi being assassinated in 2011, aside from that I do not know much. I like the background you gave to the country though, it truly highlights why this is a tragedy and unnecessary, being one of the naturally richest African nations, it should have had no issue protecting its own people from a catastrophe like this, especially given the dam's structural reports. Although an extrapolation of this incident is not ideal, I think it can be used as an example of a flaw in the Republic ideology, what the framers had. Despite labeling itself as a democracy, political and social elites, with the most means to property(really $, in oil riches), in this instance acted recklessly and in the general dis-interest of the public they were attempting to serve, resulting in as many as 20,000 deaths according to the Washington Post.
I like how you addressed the multitude of factors that contributed to the staggering death toll, as people typically try to pinpoint the blame on a single cause and I think such behavior is ineffective for preventing such a disaster from repeating itself. I also find it interesting that some of these issues also were partly responsible for the devastation caused by the Maui fires, albeit with much fewer lives lost. Even as a leading power in the global economy, the US shares many flaws in terms of citizen safety: both emergency warning systems were inadequate, and both cities had infrastructure that should have been improved--in Maui's case, the electricity company had no immediate emergency shutoff à la PG&E. To me, these weather disasters seem to be increasingly unavoidable as climate change progresses and I'm worried that soon no level of political cooperation and/or 'development' will be enough to mitigate these deaths. Or I'm just a doomer.
Unfortunately yes, the tragedy seems to have derived from Libya's authorities, and those in power completely disregarding citizens safety. I think you provide background well, highlighting Libya's oil access, and awareness of the structural issues. Because the government had knowledge of the dam risks, and the money to address the flaws yet didn't, really demonstrates a corrupt higher power, deeply removed from those poorer in the nation. While Libya is a republic like America, selfish leadership in the hands of elites are skewed to their own desires. Their government appears more prioritized with business than the welfare of its citizens. America of course has fallen into more capitalistic bouts before, like perhaps the Gilded Age, in which the lower class was disregarded and factory conditions were abysmal. The framers, like you mentioned may have been prone to taking advantage of the poor, as they didn't add a Bill of Rights, until requested. This tragic event certainly revealed Libya's corrupt government intentions.
firstly this is genuinely depressing especially given the tragedy could have been avoided if government did its job as you mentioned. I think Quincy makes a good point that natural disasters are becoming more extreme and common due to climate change. While I think the Libyan government should take the blame in this case, I think in the future, similar events will become more common. The sad part about this is that climate change is by and large caused by large powerful nation's energy consumption, yet its the small countries in already unfortunate situations (Libya has battled civil unrest for quite some time) who face the worst of the consequences since they may not be in a position to deal with a disaster.
I think Libya's government isn't necessarily set up wrong, they have very similar rights and even have their own versions of executive, legislative and judicial branches. I think the corruption stems largely from the means of election for the prime minister. An elected legislative body decides who the prime minister will be and I can image it wouldn't be difficult to bribe your way into that position. Also the general polarization of the libyan people and their small population (6.5 Mil) make the republic system more weak, at least according to Madison's ideas so I guess its not really a surprise that their government isn't functioning as it should.
The Libyan floods have been one of the largest and most destructive natural disasters in recent years. I agree with you that the scale of this tragedy could have been minimized if the Libyan government had acted more coherently and decisively. Unfortunately, due to the Civil War and other insurrection movements, there lacks a strong Libyan government to facilitate aid and assist those in times of crisis such as this. I agree with you that the struggle for power between rival factions within Libya opposed to prioritizing and protecting the rights and freedoms of the people has had a multitude of negative affects on its citizens. If resources were diverted away from the war effort and instead to the development of safety precautions and the upkeep of these dams, it is possible that this tragedy could have been prevented.
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