The Legacy of the Banqiao Dam Collapse (2013)

On the night of Aug 8, 1975, a line of people frantically piled sandbags atop Henan Province’s Banqiao Dam while being battered by the worst storm ever recorded in the region. A prolonged drought followed by heavy rains were the official causes of the disaster, but experts like Sichuan-based geologist Fan Xiao believed these factors were exacerbated by deforestation, mining and a binge of dam building that had occurred in the preceding years – issues that also plague Southwest China’s river valleys. “There are so many endangered dams,” Zhou Fangping from the Water Resources Department of Guangdong Province told China Economic Weekly in 2011.

Source: www.internationalrivers.org