At least 31 people died after the dam in the Indian state of Sikkim gave way following a torrential downpour.
A glacial lake that overflowed in India, breaking through a major dam and sending deadly, ice-cold floodwater through towns downstream, had been identified by officials, researchers and environmental activists as dangerous years before the disaster.
The design and placement of the six-year-old Teesta 3 dam were controversial from the time it was built, part of an Indian push to expand hydropower energy. The dam’s operator, and local agencies responsible for dam safety, did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. “We knew that this was coming,” said Gyatso Lepcha, general secretary of Affected Citizens of Teesta, an environmental organization based in Sikkim. “The same can happen with other dams also,” he wrote, in a statement that called for a safety review of all dams in the state.
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