Abstract: Most of the existing irrigation and water supply dams,which are referred to as rural dams,are earth dams with a height of less than 15 m.These dams are not within the scope of ICOLD,which is concerned with dams with a height of more than 15 m.Rural dams are often built by local communities and/or with the help of the organizations which have little or no experience in dam engineering and dam construction.This is particularly true for India,where some 240 dams were affected by the January 26 Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat province.These dams are different from the well-engineered dams for hydropower projects.Due to the fact that the catastrophic failure of a small dam will have an adverse impact on the whole dam industry,it is necessary that these rural dams should also satisfy the basic design and safety criteria.