Safety of dams and the potential risks to public health

Abstract

This article aimed to reflect on the implementation and effectiveness of the National Dam Safety Policy (PNSB) and on disaster risk reduction actions in the context of public health. Dams can have several uses, and their rupture causes great social, environmental, and health damage that lingers over time. The study was carried out based on a literature review and data analysis of the dam registry in Brazil in 2017.
Today, the number of existing dams and the real statistics on the occurrence of incidents/accidents due to damage or collapse of structures are not known. There are several actors involved in the dam safety process, and 43 bodies are responsible for inspecting more than 24,000 dams registered in the National Dam Safety Information System, in which 76% of the records do not have enough information to define their submission to the PNSB. The impacts on health, people, and services are diverse, direct, and indirect. Thus, this work seeks to demonstrate that the PNSB is a device with the potential to change the scenario of disaster risk management, and its effective implementation will promote the reduction of uncertainties regarding risk to the population.