Two more dams in the Hama province in the northern part of Syria have been found "defective and leaking" and a foreign company has been called in to inspect them, the official daily Tishrin said Saturday.
The two dams, Apame B and Apame C, are located 25 kilometers south of the Zeyzoun dam, which burst on Tuesday killing 22 people and leaving an estimated 4000 homeless.
The company has been asked to "solve the problem of leakages" in order to prevent a catastrophe of a larger scale from taking place.
Fortunately, a few hours before the Zeyzoun collapsed Tuesday, workers noticed cracks in the structure and were able to order an evacuation of the region, saving many lives.
However, five villages were submerged and some 8,000 hectares of cultivated land were destroyed when water engulfed the Ghab valley, 300 kilometers north of Damascus.
Agriculture will suffer "grave consequences" since the waters from the Zeyzoun were used to irrigate nearly 18,000 hectares (44,478 acres) of land, Tishrin said.
The newspaper blamed "faulty studies", "bad construction", and "mismanagement" for the burst and said investigations were underway to find those responsible for the defects.
Aid from Arab and other countries has been quick to arrive, after Damascus issued a request for it.
Twenty planes, including ten from Iraq, arrived on Friday bringing medicine, food, tents, and blankets, the paper said.
Meanwhile, a small United Nations catastrophe evaluation team from Geneva has also been in the area since Thursday. (albawaba.com)
