1979 Machchhu dam

failure

The Machchhu dam failure or Morbi

disaster was a dam-related flood disaster
which occurred on 11 August 1979, in
India. The Machchu-2 dam, situated on the
Machhu river, burst, sending a wall of
water through the town of Morbi (now in
the Morbi district) of Gujarat, India.[2]
Estimates of the number of people killed
vary greatly ranging from 1800 to 25000
people.[1][3][4]

Morbi Dam Failure

Failed earthen embankment of Machchhu II

dam

Location Morbi and villages of

Rajkot district,
Gujarat, India

Deaths 1800-25000
(estimated)[1]
 Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

Location of Machhu dam and Morbi

The dam
The dam was built near Rajkot on River
Machchhu in August 1972 as a composite
structure. It consisted of a masonry
spillway in river section and earthen
embankments on both sides. The
embankment had a 6.1 m top width, with
slopes 1 V : 3 H and 1 V : 2 H respectively
for the upstream and downstream slopes
and a clay core extending through alluvium
to the rocks below. The upstream face had
a 61 cm small gravel and a 61 cm hand
packed riprap. The dam was meant to
serve an irrigation scheme. It had a
storage capacity of 1.1 × 108 m3. The dam
had a height of 22.56 m above the river
bed, a 164.5 m of crest length of overflow
section, and a total of 3742 m of crest
length for the earth dam. The spillway
capacity provided for 5663 m³/s.[5]

Failure
The failure was caused by excessive rain
and massive flooding leading to the
disintegration of the earthen walls of the
four kilometer long Machchhu II dam. The
actual observed flow following the intense
rainfall reached 16307 m³/s, thrice what
the dam was designed for, resulting in its
collapse. Within 20 minutes the floods of
12 to 30 ft (3.7 to 9.1 m) height inundated
the low-lying areas of Morbi industrial
town located 5 km below the dam.[5]

The Morbi dam failure was listed as the

worst dam burst in the Guinness Book of
Records[6] (before the death toll of the
1975 Banquiao Dam failure was
declassified in 2005).[7] 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 and points to structural and
communication failures that led to and
exacerbated the disaster.[8] There was
great economic loss. The flood damaged
the farmland, leading to a decrease in
productivity of crops.

During reconstruction of the dam the

capacity of the spillway was increased by
four times and fixed at about 21,000
m³/s.[5]

Popular culture
The upcoming Gujarati disaster film
Machchhu is based on the Machchu dam
failure.[9]

References
1. Noorani, A. G. (21 April 1984).
"Dissolving Commissions of Inquiry".
Economic and Political Weekly. 19
(16): 667–668. JSTOR 4373178 .
2. Noorani, A. G. (25 August 1979). "The
Inundation of Morvi". Economic and
Political Weekly. 14 (34): 1454.
JSTOR 4367866 .
3. World Bank. Environment Dept (1991).
Environmental assessment
 sourcebook . World Bank Publications.
p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8213-1845-4.
Retrieved 10 January 2012.
4. S.B. Easwaran (27 August 2012). "The
Loudest Crash Of '79" . Outlook India.
Retrieved 6 March 2013.
5. Rao, Professor T. Shivaji. "Polavaram
Dam Failure Kills 45 Lakhs of People" .
Retrieved 9 January 2012.
6. Guinness, El Libro de los Récords
[Guinness Book the Records] (in
Spanish). Mexico: Ediciones Maeva,
S.A. October 1986. ISBN 978-968-458-
366-5.
 7. "People's Daily Online -- After 30 years,
secrets, lessons of China's worst dams
burst accident surface" . Retrieved
26 April 2018.
8. "Book on 1979 Morbi dam disaster
rubbishes 'Act of God' theory" . The
Indian Express. 25 July 2012.
9. https://m.timesofindia.com/entertain
ment/gujarati/movies/news/machchh
u-a-real-life-tragic-story-is-all-set-to-
release/amp_articleshow/65081425.
cms

External links
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