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Morbi
Morbi or Morvi is a city in the Morbi district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is situated on the Kathiawar peninsula. , the city's population was determined to be 194,947. The city is on the Machhu River, from the sea and from Rajkot.
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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, a ...
, situated on the
Machchhu river
Machchhu River ( gu, મચ્છુ નદી, translit=Machchhu nadi) is a river in Gujarat, India, with its origin in the Madla hills. Its basin has a maximum length of . The total catchment area of the basin is . The river is also occasional ...
, failed, sending a wall of water through the town of
Morbi
Morbi or Morvi is a city in the Morbi district in the state of Gujarat, India. It is situated on the Kathiawar peninsula. , the city's population was determined to be 194,947. The city is on the Machhu River, from the sea and from Rajkot.
H ...
(now in the
Morbi district
Morbi district is in the state of Gujarat, India. It was formed on August 15, 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 5 taluk ...
) of
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the 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 fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
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
In human geography, a catchment area 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
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, ...
. The dam was meant to serve an irrigation scheme. Considering the long history of
drought
A drought is defined as 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, an ...
in
Saurashtra region
Saurashtra, also known as Sorath or Kathiawar, is a peninsular region of Gujarat, India, located on the Arabian Sea coast. It covers about a third of Gujarat state, notably 11 districts of Gujarat, including Rajkot District. It was formerly a ...
, 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 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, thrice 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 reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' (before the death toll of the
1975 Banqiao Dam failure
The 1975 Banqiao Dam failure (simplified Chinese: 河南“75·8”水库溃坝; traditional Chinese: 河南「75·8」水庫潰壩) was the collapse of the Banqiao Dam and 61 other dams in Henan, China, under the influence of Typhoon Nina in A ...
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 is a natural hazard outside human control, such as an earthquake or tsunami, for which no person can be held responsible. An act of God may amount to an exception to liability in con ...
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'' 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 135 people and injuries to more than 180 others.
The 19th-century bridge had reopened f ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Machchhu dam failure
Dam failures
1979 disasters in India
Dams in Gujarat
History of Gujarat (1947–present)
Morbi district
Floods in Gujarat
Man-made disasters in India