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Analysis: Reservoir dams - a water-tight insurance risk?

Whaley Bridge - single use
Personnel use a Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter to lower bags of aggregate to reinforce the damaged spillway of the Toddbrook Reservoir dam above the town of Whaley Bridge
Roland Harrison/AFP via Getty Images

With almost 3000 dams supplying drinking water to towns and cities they are a common feature in the UK countryside. However, when heavy rain in August threatened the integrity of the emergency spillway at Toddbrook Reservoir an emergency evacuation of nearby Whaley Bridge was conducted. This unprecedented event raised questions over what insurance does and should cover in these circumstances

The 2800 dams in the UK supply drinking water to towns and cities, as well as feeding canals, helping agriculture and facilitating fishing, sailing and water sports. But in August, heavy rainfall

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