14 Dead in Ratnagiri Dam Breach
The Tiware dam in Chiplun Taluka of Ratnagiri broke. The water from the dam came gushing out and 23 people are feared to be dead. The government as usual has started a blame game while many of the vil
The Tiware dam in Chiplun taluka of Ratnagiri district has a storage capacity of 20 lakh cubic metre. It was built 14 years ago. The dam is 308m long. A 100m portion of The dam broke on the night of 2nd July 2019. The water has swept away 13 houses in the village and two bridges. The dam broke due to heavy rainfall. After the dam broke, there were floods in 7 of the nearby villages. Officials fear that 23 people have died. Only 14 bodies were recovered so far. The police have moved the villagers to safety. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and state police personnel are looking for the missing persons. A police officer said that they were not able to conduct the rescue operation due to darkness and the floods.
Relatives of the victims said that they had asked the district administration to repair the dam as they had spotted cracks in November last year. The Chiplun and Dapoli tehsil offices kept arguing that the dam was not in their jurisdiction and it was not their responsibility to fix it. They kept ignoring the villagers. The families say because of their ignorance so many lives were lost. Many relatives of the victims refused to claim bodies till a strong action was taken. Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan said that the state government will find out who is responsible for this negligence. They will also take strict action.
He said that the homes of the villagers washed away will be constructed at safe places. A compensation of Rs four lakh will be given to the families of the victims. Some local residents had complaints that the dam was filled to capacity and the walls had developed cracks. After this complaint they say that a Water Resources department official recently visited the dam.
