How the degradation of the construction industry led to mass dam failures: a designer's opinion

Abstract: The year 2024 pretends to be the year of floods. In the spring, high waters destroyed hydraulic structures in several regions of the Urals and Western Siberia. The city of Orsk in the Orenburg region suffered the most. In the summer, four disasters occurred in two weeks in Karelia, Buryatia, the Chelyabinsk Region and the Primorye Territory. Ones considered that the causes of those accidents were: prolonged atmospheric precipitations, rodent activities, incorrect high water assessments, design errors, subversive actions, operating rule violations, construction volume violations (when everything had been done according to documents, but in fact had not), substandard or incorrect materials. Anatoliy Bulgakov, an entrepreneur and expert in the fields of water supply and sanitation from Belgorod, believes that all of those are private causes of accidents, and the main one is the total degradation of the construction industry. The editorial staff of the “Geolnfo” journal invited him to justify his opinio and to tell what experts are facing, what needs to be done so that the water stops demolishing everything in its path.

Keywords: hydraulic structures; accidents; initial permitting documentation; engineering surveys; design; state expertise; non-state expertise; construction; operation; regulatory documentation; quality; qualification; systemic degradation.