Krasnoyarsk Territory Incident Destroyed 5 Illegally Built Dams - Investigative Committee

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2019) Five illegally built dams in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Territory collapsed as a result of a water breach, the Russian Investigative Committee said on Sunday.

The dams belonging to a gold mining cooperative collapsed on Saturday in the vicinity of the village Shchetkino in the Kuraginsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Siberia. Two temporary living quarters were flooded, killing at least 15 gold miners. A total of 14 people remain in hospitals while five more are still missing.

"It was found that the dams were built illegally, without any permits, to drain ground waters from the gold mining site. The breach began at the upper dam, then the moving water flow destroyed one by one four more hydrotechnical facilities," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

According to the committee, the mine overseer did not have the qualifications needed for his position, while the head of the facility was aware of the danger at the site. The Investigative Committee has already requested arrests of both employees as well as the company's director.

A similar incident took place on July 19, 1985, near the village of Stava in the northern Italian region of Trentino, when two tailing dams collapsed one by one, releasing about 180,000 cubic meters (over 6.3 million cubic feet) of mud, sand and water, which devastated the Rio di Stava Valley. The disaster left 269 people dead.