Dam Safety

• 2007 "Represas, Ríos y Gente" Informe (DRP)

Dam Safety Concerns Provide Window of Opportunity for Restoration

In the aftermath of catastrophic flooding in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina and extreme storm events in the Northeastern United States that brought several dams to the breaking point, renewed attention has been focused on the growing crisis of dam safety in the US. River-protection groups would like to turn this crisis into an opportunity for river restoration through the removal of obsolete and unsafe dams.

An excerpt from Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams, by Patrick McCully (Zed Books, 1996).

Dam Safety Concerns Grow in Wake of Failures, Changing Climate

World Rivers Review, June 2005

By Patrick McCully

It has been a bad year for dam safety.

In February, five dams in Pakistan burst after torrential rains swelled local rivers. The biggest of these – the 35-meter Shadikor Dam – killed at least 80 people, injured many more and left 4,000 families homeless. The Shadikor Dam was only two years old. It appears that no warnings were given to people downstream.

A diversion tunnel for recently built dam in Brazil failed during the last week in June, causing an uncontrolled release of the water from the huge upstream reservoir. The failure caused no loss of life and contractors assert that the dam’s main structure is intact, but the event is raising alarms from international environmental groups and sparking concerns about additional delays in the project, which is already well behind schedule.