Abstract: There are more than 80 000 reservoirs in China, but 36% of them have diseases. In recent years, more and more dam breach happened under the condition of fine weather and lowwater level. Some typical examples were given here, and the main reason was that the seepage existed but the water level couldn' t fall rapidly, then failure by piping was caused. Counter- measure that adding rapid release culvert in rehabilitation was advanced. Furthermore, points about the layout position and designed water discharge amount of the rapid release culvert were discussed.