60 years ago, the Malpasset Dam (Fréjus, France) broke…

The recent anniversary of the failure of the Malpasset dam (Fréjus-France) remind us how dangerous dams can be for human populations.

It was 60 years ago but the drama is still fresh in people mind. On December 2, 1959, the Malpasset dam, under the effect of torrential rains saturating its capacity, released 50 million cubic meters of water, in a wave of 60 meters high, making more than 400 victims…

Too many other dam-breaking accidents have already occurred in Europe. For example :

• In 1923, the failure of the Gleno dan (Italia) caused 500 victims
• In 1959, a dam failure in Vega de Tera reservoir (Zamora Spain), caused 144 deaths
• In 1963, the overflow of the Vajont dam in Italia caused almost 2000 deaths…
• etc…

Nowadays, although technologies have progressed, the persistence of this risk is unacceptable, especially when we add it to all the other negative impacts of dams on rivers. One reason more to avoid them…

Photo : Vajont dam disaster (Italia- 1963) – Archive photo