Indian State Evacuates 12,000 Near Leaky Dam
Authorities in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh evacuated about 12,000 people after an irrigation dam started leaking due to heavy monsoon rains, an official said Sunday.
Police said the 80-year-old Ahmadpur dam started leaking Friday night, two days after another old dam in the state burst and 100 people were feared killed.
Bodies of 25 people have so far been recovered from Wednesday’s incident, while the fate of 75 others is still unknown, police said.
“The leakage is minor. But we have evacuated people from the surrounding 12 villages as a precautionary measure,” police Supt. Zaidi Prasad said.
He said water resources department officials were trying to plug the leak.
The Ahmadpur dam, about 190 miles east of Bhopal, the state capital, is one of 832 minor semi-concrete earthen dams in Madhya Pradesh used mainly for irrigation.
State water resources department officials said more than 100 of these dams in the state needed urgent repairs.
Nearly 1,000 people have died in eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh since the middle of July after monsoon rains triggered widespread flooding, landslides and disease.
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