Date | August 8–9, 1975 |
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Location | Henan, China |
Cause | Typhoon Nina, engineering flaws, failures in policy |
Deaths | 26,000–240,000 |
Property damage |
|
1975 Banqiao Dam failure | |||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 河南「75·8」水庫潰壩 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 河南"75·8"水库溃坝 | ||||||
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In August 1975, the Banqiao Dam and 61 others throughout Henan, China collapsed following the landfall of Typhoon Nina.[1][2][3][4] The dam collapse created the third-deadliest flood in history which affected 12,000 km2 (3 million acres) with a total population of 10.15 million, including around 30 cities and counties, with estimates of the death toll ranging from 26,000 to 240,000.[1][3][4][5][6] The flood also caused the collapse of 5 million to 6.8 million houses.[5][7] The dam failure took place in the context of the Cultural Revolution.[4]
Many of the dams that collapsed were originally constructed with the help of Soviet advisors. Many were built during the Great Leap Forward.[2][5][8][9][10] The construction of the dams focused heavily on the goal of retaining water and overlooked their capacities to prevent floods, while the quality of the dams was also compromised due to the Great Leap Forward.[2][5][8][9] The Banqiao dam had been designed for a calculated one in a thousand year rainfall event of 300 mm per day; however, more than the normal yearly rainfall (1,060 mm) fell in just one day near the typhoon center.[11][12] Some experts have also stated that the focus on peasant steel production during the Great Leap Forward, as well as a number of policies from the campaign to "Learn from Dazhai in agriculture", severely damaged the ecosystem and forest cover in the region, which was a major cause of the flood, and the government's mishandling of the dam failure contributed to its severity.[5][8]
In the aftermath, various elements of the Chinese government concealed the details of the disaster until the 1990s, when the book The Great Floods in China's History (中国历史大洪水), prefaced by former Minister of Water Resources Qian Zhengying, revealed details of the disaster to the public for the first time.[5][8][9][12][13] The official documents of the disaster were declassified in 2005 by the Chinese government.[9][12][14]
The breaching of these dams caused an inundated area of 12,000 km2, a death toll of over 26,000, and economic loss of more than RMB10 billion.
长期以来,官方公布的数据一直备受质疑。譬如美国Discovery频道制作的"10 top technological catastrophe in the world"(世界十大科技灾难)专题片即认为:溃坝造成的直接死亡,加上后续因缺粮、感染、传染引起的死亡,人数共计24万多人。无论是2.6万,还是3.2万,或者是24万,事实上,官方从来也都没有过准确的伤亡数据。...... 8月20日,省委有个初步统计数字,说全省死亡85600多人,连同外地在灾区死亡的人数在内,最多不超过10万人。当时省委说,这个数字比较准确。所以中央慰问团在给毛主席、党中央写的关于河南、安徽灾情报告中,用了这个数字。
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