Days of heavy rain cause partial collapse of Norwegian dam

Part of a dam at the Braskereidfoss hydroelectric power plant, located on the Glomma River, Norway, gave way on August 9.

Furthermore, Norway saw days of heavy rain prior to the event, due to Storm Hans.

Glomma river is the country’s longest and most voluminous, while the Braskereidfoss power station is located in the southeast, roughly 100 kilometers away from Oslo.

Hafslund Eco, plant operator, stated that early on Wednesday the dam’s generators stopped working due to a power grid failure.

The station’s hatches failed to open, and Reuters reports that this was caused due to flooding of the control room.

About 1,000 people living in communities near the dam were evacuated prior to bursting, authorities said.

A solution of releasing water via controlled explosion was investigated but was later on deemed unnecessary as the dam went on to collapse.

The part that collapsed was a 45-year-old embankment dam and no clear reasons behind its failure have been announced so far. However, overtopping seems plausible from the history of the events that led to failure, as well as the water height depicted in pictures of the aftermath.

Storm Hans is an unusual event for this time of the year, while it is thought by scientists that such events, occurring at increasing frequency, could be linked to climate change.

Finally, hydrologists say that this increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related phenomena could have an impact on old dams and hydrological infrastructure.