Gönyeli Dam Spillway
A System Designed in 1962 Is Still Being Asked to Protect 2026
The spillway of Gönyeli Dam carries a detail that is often repeated in local memory:
it has not undergone comprehensive cleaning since 1962.
Whether framed as fact, neglect, or institutional inertia, this detail matters less for insurance than its consequence.
Because spillways do not fail suddenly.
They age behaviorally.
A Spillway Is Not Just Concrete
A spillway is designed to do one thing:
release excess water without resistance.
When it is not maintained over decades, three behavioral changes occur:
- Effective capacity narrows
Debris, sediment, and vegetation reduce flow efficiency.
- Discharge slows
Water stays longer upstream, increasing pressure.
- Risk becomes repetitive, not dramatic
Stress is distributed over time, not released at once.
This does not create a cinematic dam failure scenario.
It creates something more dangerous:
silent accumulation.
Why 1962 Still Matters
1962 is not just a year.
It represents an entirely different rainfall regime.
At the time:
- Rainfall was less intense
- Events were less concentrated
- Repetition was slower
Today, rainfall in Northern Cyprus arrives:
- In shorter bursts
- With higher intensity
- In closer succession
A spillway designed for the past does not collapse under the present.
It struggles quietly.
How CAN Sigorta Reads This Situation
For CAN Sigorta, the key question is not:
“Was the spillway truly never cleaned?”
The real question is:
“Can this spillway still behave as intended under today’s rainfall patterns?”
Insurance does not evaluate intent.
It evaluates outcomes.
And outcomes show a consistent pattern:
when discharge capacity decreases, risk does not grow at the dam itself.
It grows downstream, in everyday living areas.
The Risk Is Not the Dam
It Is the Delay
A neglected spillway does not immediately cause overflow.
It causes delay.
Delay means:
- Water waits
- Pressure spreads laterally
- Secondary systems take the load
This is how repeated flooding patterns form without a single dramatic event.
Final Observation
The Gönyeli Dam spillway may not have been cleaned since 1962.
But water remembers it every year.
For CAN Sigorta, the concern is not whether water comes.
It is whether water is forced to return to the same places.
Because risk does not announce itself with collapse.
It announces itself with repetition.
And repetition is always insurable.
Neglect is not.