What if the Chalillo Dam broke? It's the kind of un-natural disaster that Cayo residents don't like to think about, but it's one that BECOL and NEMO must contemplate. And that's why NEMO and BECOL are having a two day workshop to figure out how to be prepared if that worse case scenario ever occurs. It's called Exercise Dam Breaker and the folks running it are engineers and disaster managers. They are calculating a worst case scenario based on a flood four times worse than the one in 1995. BECOL's Stephen Usher told us that in the name of public safety, they have to prepare for the worst - and then some.
Stephen Usher, BECOL
"So we are looking at the worse case scenario, it may not happen but we are looking at that scenario and we are going to put a plan in place for evacuation of all the stakeholders along the Macal River and the villages if that event should occur.
The structure was designed not to break. We did a serious of studies and we have a lot of hydrological data from the Meteorology Department but we are looking at a worse case scenario. We are not saying that this will occur. It can occur and this exercise is to look at the worse possible scenario and plan for the worse. So even if it doesn't occur, we'll have a plan in place that if an event of such should occur, we are prepared for it."
Dambreaker is a two day exercise.
