How safe are India's dams?

The long-term safety of a dam depends on the extent of degradation of its materials, weakening of the foundations and seismological threats

On August 11, 1979, after a week of extraordinary monsoon rains in Gujarat, the two mile-long Machhu Dam-II disintegrated. The waters released from the dam’s massive reservoir rushed through the heavily populated downstream area, devastating the industrial city of Morbi and its surrounding agricultural villages. Bridges gave way, factories crumbled, and thousands of houses collapsed. While no firm figure has ever been established on the disaster’s final death count, estimates have run as high as 25,000. Despite the enormous scale of the devastation, few people today remember this terrible event. The book No One Had A Tongue To Speak by