BAGHDAD: Iraq announced on Tuesday that it has awarded Italian firm Trevi a contract to repair and maintain the country’s largest dam, which is in danger of catastrophic collapse. The Mosul Dam was built on an unstable foundation of soils that erode when exposed to water, and a lapse in maintenance after the Islamic State group seized it in 2014 weakened the already flawed structure. The dam has long been in danger of collapse, which US officials have warned could send a huge wave crashing into IS-held Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, about 40 kilometres away. The Iraqi Cabinet, with the agreement of the Ministry of Water Resources, awarded Trevi the contract ‘to carry out the project of rehabilitating and maintaining the Mosul Dam’, a government statement said. The deal has yet to be signed, according to the statement.