NE Kenyan Dam On Verge Of Breaking Under Pressure Of Torrential Rains - AFP

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dam in northeastern Kenya is on the brink of bursting under the onslaught of devastating torrential rain which has caused heavy flooding in East Africa, the UN's humanitarian office warned on Friday. "The biggest concern in Kenya at the moment is a dam on the river Tana. The dam is on the brink of bursting," said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Authorities and UN experts were struggling to alert people living downstream as they prepared to open floodgates to try to relieve pressure on the dam, she added. "That's a major worry now because if a gap is not opened in the dam on the Tana, it risks breaking," Byrs told journalists. Opening the dam would cause a surge in the already bloated water levels on the river.

Byrs was unable to say immediately how many people lived downstream and were under threat. The situation in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia is expected to worsen over the coming weeks as the torrential rain continues, said Byrs.

"It is unusually severe and the experts say it could last into the beginning of 2007," she said. Normally seasonal rains in the region last from October into November. "We have a serious situation, and the humanitarian situation is going to get worse," she added.

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