The World's Most Catastrophic Dam Failures: The August 1975 Collapse of the Banqiao and Shimantan Dams

In August 1975, a typhoon struck Zhumadian Prefecture of Henan Prov­ince in central China, causing reservoirs to swell with rainwater behind dozens of dams.* When the torrential rains subsided, the massive Banqiao and Shimantan dams had collapsed, as had dozens of smaller dams. The destruction downstream was unprecedented: Eighty-five thousand people were dead, and millions more lost their homes and livelihoods.

This is a chapter from a compilation of essays in the book, The River Dragon Has Come!: Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China's Yangtze River and Its People, by Dai Qing.