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Morbi
Morbi or Morvi is a city founded as a princely state around 1698 by Jadeja Thakor Saheb Shree Kayoji Ravaji. It is in the Morbi district in the States and territories of India, state of Gujarat, India. It is situated on the Kathiawar peninsula. ...
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The Machchhu dam failure or Morbi disaster is a dam-related flood disaster which occurred on 11 August 1979. The Machchu-2
dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
, situated on the
Machchhu River, failed, sending a wall of water through the town of
Morbi
Morbi or Morvi is a city founded as a princely state around 1698 by Jadeja Thakor Saheb Shree Kayoji Ravaji. It is in the Morbi district in the States and territories of India, state of Gujarat, India. It is situated on the Kathiawar peninsula. ...
(now in the
Morbi district
Morbi district is in the state of Gujarat, India. It was formed on 15 August 2013, along with several other districts, on the 67th Independence Day of India. Morbi city is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district has five tal ...
) of
Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
.
Estimates of the number of people killed vary greatly ranging from 1,800 to 25,000 people.
The Machchu II dam
The first dam on the Machchhu river, named Machchhu I, was built in 1959, having a
catchment area
A catchment area in human geography, is the area from which a location, such as a city, service or institution, attracts a population that uses its services and economic opportunities. Catchment areas may be defined based on from where people are ...
of . The Machchhu II dam was constructed downstream of Machchhu I in 1972, and has a catchment area of .
It was an
earthfill dam. The dam was meant to serve an irrigation scheme. Considering the long history of
drought
A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...
in
Saurashtra region, the primary consideration at the time of design was water supply, not flood control. It consisted of a masonry
spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...
of consisting 18 sluice gates across the river section and long earthen embankments on both sides. The
spillway
A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure tha ...
capacity provided for .
The embankments were of and of length on left and right side respectively.
The embankments had a 6.1 m top width, with upstream and downstream slopes 1:3 (V:H) and 1:2 respectively; and a clay core extending through
alluvium
Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...
to bedrock. The upstream face consisted of 61 cm small gravel and a 61 cm hand packed rip-rap. The dam stood above the river bed and its overflow section was long. The reservoir had a storage capacity of .
Failure
The failure was caused by excessive rain and massive flooding leading to the disintegration of the earthen walls of the four kilometre long Machchhu-2 dam. The actual observed flow following the intense rainfall reached 16,307 m
3/s, three times what the dam was designed for, resulting in its collapse. of the left and of the right embankment of the dam collapsed.
Within 20 minutes the floods of height inundated the low-lying areas of Morbi industrial town located 5 km below the dam.
Around 3.30 pm the tremendous swirling flow of water struck Morbi. Water level rose to within the next 15 minutes and some low lying areas of city were under of water for the next 6 hours.
The Morbi dam failure was listed as the worst dam burst in the ''
Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...
'' (before the death toll of the
1975 Banqiao Dam failure
In August 1975, the Banqiao Dam and 61 others throughout Henan, China, collapsed following the landfall of Typhoon Nina (1975), Typhoon Nina. The dam collapse created the List of natural disasters by death toll#Floods, third-deadliest flood in hi ...
was declassified in 2005). The book ''No One Had A Tongue To Speak'' by Tom Wooten and Utpal Sandesara debunks the official claims that the dam failure was an
act of God
In legal usage in the English-speaking world, an act of God, act of nature, or damnum fatale ("loss arising from inevitable accident") is an event caused by no direct human action (e.g. Severe weather, severe or extreme weather and other natur ...
and points to structural and communication failures that led to and exacerbated the disaster.
There was great economic loss. The flood damaged farmland, leading to a decrease in productivity of crops.
The book by Wooten and Sandesara gives vivid first person accounts of many survivors. It narrates how people scrambled for rooftops, hilltops, and other safe grounds in order to save themselves. Over a hundred people took shelter in Vajepar Ram Mandir but later the deluge submerged them with the temple. Women were compelled to drop their babies into the furious surge in order to save themselves and people lost their loved ones in a flash.
During reconstruction of the dam the capacity of the spillway was increased by four times and fixed at about 21,000 m
3/s.
Popular culture
The Gujarati disaster film ''
Machchhu tara vehta pani'' is based on the Machchhu dam failure.
See also
*
2022 Morbi bridge collapse
On 30 October 2022, a pedestrian suspension bridge over the Machchhu River in the city of Morbi in Gujarat, India, collapsed, causing the deaths of at least 141 people and injuries to more than 180 others.
The 19th-century bridge had reopened ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Machchhu dam failure
Dam failures in Asia
1979 disasters in India
Dams in Gujarat
1970s in Gujarat
Morbi district
Floods in Gujarat
Man-made disasters in India