The Laos Dam collapses: Dozens of people fear death, rescuers seek hundreds of missing

World

Water had flooded the surrounding lands, taking away villages and houses.

State media showed photos of villagers, some with young children, stranded on the roofs of submerged houses.

Others showed villagers trying to board wooden boats in the Attapeu province, the southernmost part of the country.

A senior government official, who refused to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to the media "We will continue relief operations today but this is not the case. It's very difficult, the conditions are very difficult, "a Vientiane official told Reuters.

"Dozens of people are dead, it could be higher."

The official Laotian news agency KPL said that more than 6,600 people had lost their homes

Dams are a crucial part of the Laotian economy, with much of the country's population. electricity exported to neighboring countries.

The once isolated Southeast Asian country, one of the few communist states in the world, has an ambitious dam to become the "battery of Asia"

Photo:
Volunteers helped evacuate stranded people to higher ground.

His government relies almost entirely on outside developers to build its planned dam portfolio under trade concessions that agree to export electricity to its more developed neighbors, including Thailand's power-hungry Thailand. .

Environmental rights groups have repeatedly warned of the human and environmental cost of rapid dam construction, including damage to the already fragile ecosystem of rivers. the region.

The collapsed dam is part of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric project, which involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean companies.

The subsidiary dam, known as "Saddle Dam D", was part of a network of two main dams and five subsidiary dams.

In a statement, the public electricity generation company Ratchaburi said that the company operating the dam "fractured" had "At present, Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company Limited and the related agencies have evacuated people who reside in the area to a temporary shelter to ensure their safety, in accordance with the emergency plan, "said the spokesman. read:

"In addition, an urgent badessment of the situation is made in order to be able to immediately resolve the situation once the water level of the dam has decreased."

The company said that the dam was about 90 hundred completed and whose commercial exploitation is scheduled for 2019.

Photo:
Residents sit on the roofs of homes as the floods threaten to overwhelm their homes altogether. South Korean builder SK Engineering and Construction said that part of a small supply barrage had been washed away and that the company was cooperating with the Lao government to help save villagers near the town of Kuala Lumpur.

A company official said that fractures had been discovered on the dam on Sunday and that the company had ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as it became clear that the dam could s & # 39; collapse.

SK E & C's largest shareholder, SK Holdings Co Ltd, dropped 6.2% after the accident, marking its largest daily percentage loss since February 11, 2016. The second-largest shareholder , SK Discovery Co Ltd, has slid up to 10%.

Brian Eyler, Director According to the Stimson Center's Southeast Asia program, the failure of a dam could be "worse in terms of devastation" than that of a main dam

"With the rupture of a dam, water flows into an unused area. to have water It will stay inside and will continue to pierce until water can be diverted, which is an option, or until the tank be lowered to a level below the gap, "Eyler told Reuters

. major shock to Laos project to become the battery of Southeast Asia, "he declared

ABC / Wires

Topics:

dams and reservoirs,

disasters and accidents,

Lao People's Democratic Republic,

Asia

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