The Vajont Tragedy

The Vajont Dam is one of the tallest dams in the world built in 1950s in the North of Italy under Monte Toc just a few kms outside of Venice by Societa Adriatica di Elettricita. In 1963 a landslide from Monte Toc caused a tsunami in the dam lake resulting in an overspilling of massive water volumes causing flooding and destruction to the nearby villages with up to 2,000 deaths (Petley 2008). Only afterwards, it was found that the government and ENEL, the electrical plant with ownership of the dam, concealed sensitive documents highlighting potential geological risks and possible tectonic problems (Hardenberg 2011). Moreover, during the construction of the dam itself builders ignored soil conservation requirements which led to an overfilling of the reservoir (Hardenberg 2011).

Several environmental impacts were identified in the construction as well as the disruption of this large scale work of engineering. Starting with the deforestation of the surrounding area, which also led to the geological instability of the dam, to loss of landscape and biodiversity (EJAtlas). This also impacted the water quality leading to surface water pollution, decreasing water quality in physico-chemical terms as well as groundwater pollution and depletion (EJAtlas). 

The Italian ministry for the environment and energy security reiterates the importance of securing such high hydrogeological risk areas which are significant on the Italian peninsula and has imposed since then a strict financing mechanism to remove population from such areas of danger as well as invest in more sustainable solutions in the case of hydroelectric energy plants (MASE 2022). The Vajont dam remains in disuse and only in 2002 ENEL allowed the entrance to first guided tours in the top crown of the construction.


References:

Hardenberg, Wilko Graf von. (2011), Expecting Disaster: The 1963 Landslide of the Vajont Dam, Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia, no. 8. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society

Petley, Dave (2008), The Vaiont (Vajont) landslide of 1963, The Landslide Blog, Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20160114061049/http://www.landslideblog.org/2008/12/vaiont-vajont-landslide-of-1963.html

EJAtlas - Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, Vajont Dam disaster, Italy, Available at: https://ejatlas.org/

MASE, (2022), Investimento 2.1a - Misure per la gestione del rischio di alluvione e per la riduzione del rischio Idrogeologico, Available at: https://www.mase.gov.it/pagina/investimento-2-1a-misure-la-gestione-del-rischio-di-alluvione-e-la-riduzione-del-rischio


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