About 60 People Injured As Result Of Dam Breach In Uzbekistan - Emergencies Ministry

TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd May, 2020) Around 60 people have been hospitalized as a result of a dam breach in the Sirdaryo Region of Uzbekistan, the national Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday, when one of the dams of the Sardoba Reservoir breached after heavy rain and strong wind, leaving several settlements, agricultural areas and roads flooded.

"At the moment, the information about people injured by the flood has been received: 56 have been hospitalized with various injuries," the ministry wrote in its Telegram-channel.

More than 17,000 people have undergone medical examinations.

About 70,000 people, who live near the Sardoba Reservoir, have been evacuated to special facilities in the Sirdaryo and Jizzax regions.

The Sardoba Reservoir was constructed in 2017 and contains 922 million cubic meters (over 243 billion gallons) of water.

A dam breach is a rare yet extremely dangerous accident, which may potentially result in many victims. One of the most famous incidents happened on December 2, 1959, when the Malpasset Dam on the Reyran River in southern France collapsed, leaving 423 people dead. Another deadly incident occurred in 1961 in the then Soviet city of Kiev, where a dam failure resulted in a heavy mudslide that killed from 146 to 1,500 people.