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Coordinates: 325858N 1133724E

Banqiao Dam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Banqiao Reservoir Dam (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ;

pinyin: Bnqio Shuk Db) is a dam on the River Ru in Zhumadian City, Henan province, China. Its
failure in 1975 caused more casualties than any other dam failure in history at an estimated 171,000 deaths
and 11 million displaced.[1] The dam was subsequently rebuilt.

The Banqiao dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam (simplified Chinese: ; traditional
Chinese: ; pinyin: Shmntn Shuk Db) are among 62 dams in Zhumadian that failed
catastrophically or were intentionally destroyed in 1975 during Typhoon Nina.

Contents
1 History
1.1 1975 Banqiao Dam Flood
1.2 Casualties
1.3 Reconstruction
2 Legacy
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

History
Construction of the Banqiao dam began in April 1951
on the Ru River with the help of Soviet consultants as
part of a project to control flooding and provide
electrical power generation. The construction was a
response to severe flooding in the Huai River Basin in
1949 and 1950.[2] The dam was completed in June
1952. Because of the absence of hydrology data, the
design standard was lower than usual. After the 1954
Huai River great flood, the upstream reservoirs
including Banqiao were extended, constructed, and
consolidated. Banqiao Dam was increased in height by
three meters. The dam crest level was 116.34 meters
above sea level and the crest level of the wave
protection wall was 117.64 meters above sea level. The
total capacity of the reservoir was 492 million m3
(398,000 acre feet), with 375 million m3 (304,000 acre
feet) reserved for flood storage. The dam was made of
clay and was 24.5 meters high. The maximum discharge Approximate location of Banqiao Dam
of the reservoir was 1742 m3/s.

Cracks in the dam and sluice gates appeared after completion due to construction and engineering errors.
They were repaired with the advice from Soviet engineers and the new design, dubbed the iron dam, was
considered unbreakable.

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Chen Xing (), one of China's foremost hydrologists, was involved in the design of the dam. He was
also a vocal critic of the government's dam building policy, which involved many dams in the basin. He had
recommended 12 sluice gates for the Banqiao Dam, but this was criticized as being too conservative, and
the number was reduced to five. Other dams in the project, including the Shimantan Dam, had a similar
reduction of safety features and Chen was removed from the project. In 1961, after problems with the water
system were revealed, he was brought back to help. Chen continued to be an outspoken critic of the system
and was again removed from the project.

1975 Banqiao Dam Flood

Officially, the dam failure was a natural as opposed to man-made

disaster, with government sources placing an emphasis on the
amount of rainfall as opposed to poor engineering and construction.
The People's Daily has maintained that the dam was designed to
survive a once-in-1000-years flood (300 mm of rainfall per day) but
a once-in-2000-years flood occurred in August 1975, following the
collision of Typhoon Nina and a cold front. The typhoon was
blocked for two days before its direction ultimately changed from
northeastward to westward.[3] As a result of this near stationary
Rough diagram of waterflow during
thunderstorm system, more than a year's worth of rain fell within 24
the Banqiao Dam failure
hours (new records were set, at 189.5 mm (7.46 inches) rainfall per
hour and 1060 mm (41.73 inches) per day, exceeding the average
annual precipitation of about 800 mm (31.5 inches)),[4] which weather forecasts failed to predict.[4] China
Central Television reported that the typhoon disappeared from radar as it degraded.[5] According to
Xinhua,[6] the forecast was for rainfall of 100 mm by the Beijing-based Central Meteorological Observatory.

Communication with the dam was largely lost due to wire failures. On August 6, a request to open the dam
was rejected because of the existing flooding in downstream areas. On August 7 the request was accepted,
but the telegrams failed to reach the dam.[7] The sluice gates were not able to handle the overflow of water
partially due to sedimentation blockage.[8] On August 7 at 21:30, the People's Liberation Army Unit 34450
(by name the 2nd Artillery Division in residence at Queshan county), which was deployed on the Banqiao
Dam, sent the first dam failure warning via telegraph. On August 8, at 1:00, water at the Banqiao crested at
the 117.94 m level above sea level, or 0.3 meter higher than the wave protection wall on the dam, and it
failed. The same storm caused the failure of 62 dams in total. The runoff of Banqiao Dam was 13,000 m3
per second in vs. 78,800 m3 per second out, and as a result 701 million m3 of water were released in 6
hours,[4] while 1.67 billion m3 of water were released in 5.5 hours at an upriver Shimantan Dam, and 15.738
billion m3 of water were released in total.

The resulting flood waters caused a wave 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) wide and 37 meters (9.823.0 ft) high in
Suiping () that rushed onto the plains below at nearly 50 kilometers per hour (31 mph), almost wiping
out an area 55 kilometers (34 mi) long and 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) wide, and creating temporary lakes as
large as 12,000 square kilometers (4,600 sq mi). Seven county seats, Suiping, Xiping (), Ru'nan (),
Pingyu (), Xincai (), Luohe (), and Linquan () were inundated, as were thousands of
square kilometers of countryside and countless communities. Evacuation orders had not been fully delivered
due to weather conditions and poor communications. Telegraphs failed, signal flares fired by Unit 34450
were misunderstood, telephones were rare, and some messengers were caught by the flood. While only 827
out of 6,000 people died in the evacuated community of Shahedian just below Banqiao Dam, half of a total
of 36,000 people died in the unevacuated Wencheng commune of Suipin County next to Shahedian, and the
Daowencheng Commune was wiped from the map, killing all 9,600 citizens.[4] Although a large number of
people were reported as lost at first, many of them later returned home. A 2005 book compiled by the
Archives Bureau of Suiping county reports that more than 230,000 were carried away by water, in which

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18,869 died.[9] It has been reported that 90,000 - 230,000 people were killed as a result of the dam breaking.

To protect other dams from failure, several flood diversion areas were evacuated and inundated, and several
dams were deliberately destroyed by air strikes to release water in desired directions. The Nihewa and
Laowangpo flood diversion areas downstream of the dams soon exceeded their capacity and gave up part of
their storage on August 8, forcing more flood diversion areas to begin to evacuate. The dikes on the Quan
River collapsed in the evening of August 9, and the entire Linquan county in Fuyang, Anhui was inundated.
As the Boshan Dam, with a capacity of 400 million m3, crested and the water released from the failures of
Banqiao and Shimantan was rushing downstream, air strikes were made against several other dams to
protect the Suya Lake dam, already holding 1.2 billion m3 of water.[10] Suya Lake won only a temporary
reprieve, as both it and Boshan became eventual targets. Finally, the Bantai Dam, holding 5.7 billion m3 of
water, was bombed.[11]

The Jingguang Railway, a major artery from Beijing to Guangzhou, was cut for 18 days, as were other
crucial communications lines. Although 42,618 People's Liberation Army troops were deployed for disaster
relief, all communication to and from the cities was cut.[4] Nine days later there were still over a million
people trapped by the waters, who relied on airdrops of food and were unreachable to disaster relief.
Epidemics and famine devastated the trapped survivors. The damage of the Zhumadian area was estimated
to be about CN3.5 billion (US$513 million).[12] The Zhumadian government appealed to the whole nation
for help, and received more than CN300 million (US$44,000,000) in donations.[13]

After the flood, a summit of National Flood Prevention and Reservoir Security at Zhengzhou, Henan was
held by the Department of Water Conservancy and Electricity, and a nationwide reservoir security
examination was performed. Chen Xing was again brought back to the project.

Casualties

According to the Hydrology Department of Henan Province, approximately 26,000 people died at the
province[14] from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent epidemics and famine. In addition,
about 5,960,000 buildings collapsed, and 11 million residents were affected. Unofficial estimates of the
number of people killed by the disaster have run as high as 230,000 people.[15] The death toll of this disaster
was declassified in 2005.[4]

Reconstruction

Within eleven years of the dam failure, the lower reach of the River Ru, esp. Zhumadian City, experienced
several more disastrous floods. After many feasibility studies, the new Banqiao Reservoir reconstruction
was listed as a key national project of The Seventh Five-Year Plan of China. The project owner was Huai
River Water Resources Commission. The construction contractor was Changjiang Gezhouba Engineering
Bureau. By the end of 1986, the rebuilding project commenced. On June 5, 1993, the project was certified
by the Chinese government.

The reconstructed Banqiao Reservoir controls a catchment area of 768 km2 (297 sq mi). The maximum
reserve capacity is 675 million m3 (178 billion gallons), a capacity increase of 34% above the capacity of
the failed dam. The effective storage is 256 million m3 (67.6 billion gallons) and the corresponding normal
high water level is 111.5 m (366 ft) above sea level. The flood control storage is 457 million m3
(121 billion gallons). The dam is made of clay and is 3,720 m (12,200 ft) long and 50.5 m (166 ft) high. The
dam crest level is 120 m (390 ft) above sea level. The maximum discharge of the reservoir is 15000 m3/s
(about 3.96 million gallons/s).

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Legacy
After the disaster of the Banqiao dam failure, the Chinese government became very focused on surveillance,
repair, and consolidation of reservoir dams. China has 87,000 reservoirs across the country; most of which
were built in the 1950s1970s using low construction standards. Most of these reservoirs are in serious
disrepair, posing challenges to the prevention and control of flood-triggered geological disasters in areas
with a population of 130 million or more. China's medium and small rivers are considered to be the Achilles'
heel in the country's river control systems. According to statistics from the Ministry of Water Resources,
China has invested CN64.9 billion (US$9.72 billion) since the 1998 Yangtze River floods in repairing and
consolidating the country's 9,197 degraded reservoirs, of which 2,397 are large or medium-sized, and 6,800
are key small reservoirs.[16]

See also
List of hydroelectric power station failures
Hydraulic engineering
Hydroelectric power station failures
Natural disasters in China
Dam 999

References
1. Osnos, Evan. Faust, China, and Nuclear Power, The New Yorker, Wednesday October 12, 2011. Retrieved at
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2011/10/faust-china-and-nuclear-power.html/ on October 12,
2011 mirrored at https://web.archive.org/web/20140315044350/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs
/evanosnos/2011/10/faust-china-and-nuclear-power.html
2. Thayer Watkins. "The Catastrophic Dam Failures in China in August 1975". San Jose State University. Retrieved
2013-11-25.
3. Monsoons Over China by Ding Yihui, Springer 1994 edition (December 31, 1993), page 229.
4. After 30 years, secrets, lessons of China's worst dams burst accident surface (http://english.people.com.cn
/200510/01/eng20051001_211892.html)
5. "CCTV.com". CCTV.com. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
6. [1] (http://english.people.com.cn/200510/01/eng20051001_211892.html)
7. "CCTV.com". Cctv.cn. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
8. The River Dragon Has Come! Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China's Yangtze River and Its People
(https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0765602067&id=R9w2RfP-mtQC&pg=RA2-PA33&lpg=RA2-
PA33&ots=uubW7L0HXX&sig=U7uCRfs5pxfduwuNTiqDhxr24oo#PRA2-PA32,M1)
9. Jiang, Hua (2010-08-11). "Warning". Southern Metropolis Daily (in Chinese). p. AT08. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
10. "CCTV.com". Cctv.cn. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
11. "CCTV.com". Cctv.cn. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
12. "CCTV.com". Cctv.cn. Retrieved 2013-11-25.
13. The 30 Year Anniversary of the August, 1975 flood (http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2005-08-09/06296643805s.shtml)
14. (in Chinese). Hydrology Department of Henan. 2002-10-08. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
15. .Goldstein, Lorrie. "'Safe' Power an Oxymoron". Toronto Sun. Sunday, March 20, 2011. Retrieved at [2]
(http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2011/03/18/17675461.html) on March 20,
2011.
16. "China Costs Huge Investments to Repair Reservoirs" by Xinhua Agency on Oct 13, 2010
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-10/13/c_13556171.htm)

External links
HRW report (https://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/China1.htm)
Excerpt from Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams, by Patrick McCully

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(http://www.internationalrivers.org/dam-basics/silenced-rivers-the-ecology-and-politics-large-dams)
A Procedure for Estimating Loss of Life Caused by Dam Failure (https://web.archive.org
/web/20110613144021/http://www.usbr.gov/ssle/damsafety/Risk/Estimating%20life%20loss.pdf)
Flood and Drought in the History, Hydrology Department of Henan (Simplified Chinese)
(https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055232/http://www.hnsl.gov.cn/look0/article.php?L_Type=1&
id=297)
The Worst Dam Failure in the World, The Truth of the Failure of Ban Qiao Dam, Henan (Simplified
Chinese) (http://news.163.com/41124/6/15VFF9QE00011249.html)
Typhoon Nina Track (http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/summary/wnp/s/197503.html.en)
After 30 years, secrets, lessons of China's worst dams burst accident surface
(http://english.people.com.cn/200510/01/eng20051001_211892.html)
The River Dragon Has Come!: The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China's Yangtze River and Its
People (https://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0765602059&id=R9w2RfP-
mtQC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=%22banqiao+dam%22&vq=banqiao&sig=iLFE-
G5Wi98R2Q2ttAgnbQ3y3Jk)
transcript:four-episode documentary film: Remember the Flood in August 1975 (http://www.cctv.cn
/program/jzql/topic/history/C15481/02/index.shtml)

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Categories: Buildings and structures in Henan Dams in China Floods in China Dam failures
1975 disasters 1975 floods 1975 in China Disasters in China Dams completed in 1993

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