Kenya's Patel dam bursts leaving at least 27 dead
After a night of heavy rain, a dam in Kenya burst on Wednesday sweeping away hundreds of homes and causing "huge destruction". The breach of the Patel dam happened on farmland near Solai, 190km north-west of the capital Nairobi. Preliminary reports indicate that at least 27 people have been killed, and over 2,000 rendered homeless. The full extent of the damage isn't known yet.
The dam burst resulted out of excessive water volumes
The walls of the dam caved in because of excessive volumes of water resultant of the heavy rains that have been pounding Kenya for a while now. Witnesses said that they heard a loud bang when the Patel dam in Nakuru County burst. The waves from the dam burst swept through nearly 2km of private farmland where many people lived and worked.
Search-and-rescue operations are on
Investigations on licensing of reservoirs currently underway
The Patel dam is one of the three reservoirs in the area which is owned by a large-scale farmer. Local leaders have now launched an investigation to find out whether the farmer had the license to erect three reservoirs. Concerns regarding the condition of the other two reservoirs currently loom large on local residents' heads.
