Dam Failure in Uzbekistan

In case you missed this news last week:

On May 1, around 6 a.m., after a long rainy week a section of the earthen wall forming the Sardoba Reservoir gave way. The reservoir was completed in 2017, after seven years of construction. The reservoir, 29 meters deep, was designed to hold 922 million cubic meters of water for irrigation of the surrounding agricultural lands in Sirdaryo and Jizzakh regions.

Story here in The Diplomat.

Close to 100,000 people evacuated now in two countries. Thankfully no fatalities reported. Nonetheless, this is a total disaster for Uzbekistan, and a huge set back for the nation’s development plans for irrigation, hydropower, and so on.

Don’t think we’ve seen the last of disasters like this. Cheap, unsafe dams are being thrown up throughout the developing world. Companies building them are not being properly regulated.

That’s my tweet in 2018 after a dam collapse in Laos.

This isn’t the first and it won’t be the last.

Nice before and after satellite shots here and here from NASA.