The collapse of the suspension bridge in Gujarat’s Morbi into Machchhu river claimed over 130 lives. But this is not the first time tragedy struck Morbi, which witnessed the horrific scenes during the dam burst in 1979.
Morbi district, which is surrounded by Kutch in the north, Rajkot in the south, Surendranagar in the east and Jamnagar in the west, was created on August 15, 2013 and has five talukas — Morbi, Maliya, Tankara, Wankaner, and Halvad.
Morbi town is situated on the Machchhu River, which originates from the hill ranges of Jasdan Sardar and Mandva in Rajkot district and Chotila in Surendranagar district and passes through Malia, Morbi, Wankaner, Jasdam and Rajkot taluks of Rajkot districts.
1979 ‘Worst Dam Burst’
Following the heavy rainfall during the monsoon season in Gujarat, on August 11, 1979, the two mile-long Machchhu Dam-II disintegrated — listed as ‘worst dam burst’ in the Guiness Book of World Records. The water from the dam’s reservoir inundated the industrial city of Morbi and its surrounding agricultural villages. The estimates of the number of people killed in the unprecedented tragedy vary greatly ranging from 1,800 to 25,000, news agency PTI reported.
“While no firm figure has ever been set on the disaster’s final death count, estimates in the flood’s wake ran as high as 25,000,” read the 2011 released book “No One Had a Tongue to Speak: The Untold Story of One of History’s Deadliest Floods”. Machchhu dam-II was later rebuilt in the end of the 1980s.
The recent tragedy evoked the painful memories of the Machchhu Dam disaster for many people.
“Nature is cruel. #Morbi has a disastrous relationship with water. Yesterday’s #MorbiBridgeTragedy has revived memories of #MacchuDam disaster of 1979. Ironically, #Morbi is one of the places which faces water shortage often,” tweeted Deepal Trivedi from Gujarat.
“The infamous “Macchu” Macchu Dam collapse claimed about 20000 human lives and lakhs of cattle and other animals in 1979. Now it claims lives of 100s with the bridge collapse. Pray for the deceased and their families. #Morbi,” added Madhup Kumar Pandey from Uttar Pradesh.
While another user Shivkumar Jolad from Pune, hoped that lessons would be learnt by the administration and there won’t be any bridge collapses in the future.
“Terrible human tragedy. It is the second worst tragedy in Morbi after the Macchu Dam breach in 1979 (which killed 5-10000 people). Hope lessons are learnt – and not repeat bridge collapse to technical failures,” he tweeted.
(With PTI inputs)
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