Living in the shadow of a large dam means you have placed your trust in the engineers who designed it. Because if there were any errors in their calculations, the result could be a deadly catastrophe. When a dam breaches, the consequent water surge can carry away all before it, destroying property and killing humans and livestock. As this list shows, when mistakes are made during dam construction, the results can be truly horrific. Some final words of reassurance: the vast majority of dams don’t fail!

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