Dam safety skills
Dam surveillance should be carried out by experienced people, trained to recognise deficiencies in dams. Inspections requiring technical evaluations should generally be carried out by a dams engineer, and other specialists. However, the detection of many deficiencies is not beyond the capability of trained operations personnel.
Dam owners should ensure that all operational personnel are suitable trained, with refresher courses at regularly intervals (ie. 5 yearly) and are aware of the consequences of failure of their dam and of the deficiencies that have been found in similar dams. Relevant courses for dam operators are currently available in the TAFE system for Water Operations at the Certificate 3 level.