Floods In Libya And India Highlight Rising Risk To Dams

Last week, a flood on the Teetsa River swept through villages in the Himalayan mountains of India, taking out bridges and homes. At least 40 people were killed, with more than a hundred people still missing. The root of the disaster appeared to be a natural one, as an avalanche sent ice and boulders tumbling into a large glacial lake, causing it to overflow as a wall of water that surged downstream. But, as with most disasters, it’s hard to call this one strictly “natural” because human-caused climate change has made this type of event—a “glacial lake outburst flood”—more likely.

As the massive wave swept downstream, it obliterated the Teetsa-3 dam, a 1200 megawatt hydropower dam that was only a decade old and cost 1.5 billion USD to construct. This sudden loss of major infrastructure underscores another risk that climate change is amplifying: the vulnerability of hydropower and other dams to damage or destruction from floods that will continue to grow in magnitude.