The Chief Scientist of the Institute of Water Problems RAN, Doctor of Technical Sciences Mikhail Bolgov stated that the cause of the dam break in Orsk was a construction defect and dismissed the theory of rodents as an “exotic hypothesis.” This was reported by RIA Novosti.
“There was no evidence of rodents. It was more likely due to inadequate preparation. It seems like they forgot to clear the forest, maybe they didn’t remove it, maybe they buried it along with logs. For mice to gnaw through the dam so that all the soil from the upper berm side is pushed to the lower side, is certainly a complex story,” Bolgov said.
According to him, if rats had gnawed the dam, they would have done it over a large distance. On April 9, the mayor of Orenburg Sergey Salmin stated that emergency evacuation may be introduced in the city in the next few hours. On the evening of April 5, the dam in Orsk, Orenburg region, ruptured in two places.
Local residents reported that there had been a leak in it for several days. The director of AO “Spetsstroy”, which is the general contractor for the construction of an embankment dam on the Ural River in Orsk, Sergey Komarov suggested that rodents could be responsible for the water breach.