Dam and Its Failure: a Brief Review of Some Selected Dams Around the World

This paper critically covers all the aspects of some selected dam failures around the world. The aim of the study is to examine the failures while the objectives are to; investigate the causes of the failures and to give possible recommendations. The materials used are journal articles. The methods involved are Google search with a view of extracting some relevant information on some selected dam failures. The result shows that factors responsible for the failure are due to geological, engineering and human factors. The geological factors are due to; heavy rains, flooding, earthquake, mud and water inundation, overtopping, thunderstorm, landfall, seismic activity, and torrential rainfall. The engineering factors are due to poor foundation, technical breakdown and foundation failure while the human factors are due to poor maintenance. These factors can cause immense damage to loss of life and property when they occur. Prior to the construction of dam, the services of geotechnical engineer and geologist should be sought in other to ensure its safety by carrying out detailed geotechnical and geological site investigations in other to know the surface and subsurface condition of the construction site. It is recommended that adequate geological, geophysical, geotechnical, geographic information technology, use of standard construction material, and regular monitoring should be carried out before and after dam construction.