The floods of the hydroelectric dam of Laos make hundreds of missing

BANGKOK – Mbadive flooding of a hydroelectric dam built in southern Laos has left several dead and hundreds of missing, the media reported on Tuesday. Relief efforts were underway as senior government officials rushed to the site and public calls were made.

The official KPL agency announced that part of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydroelectric dam in Attapeu province has collapsed. The amounts of water that swept the houses, flooded the villages and made more than 6,600 people homeless.

The website of the official Vientiane Times newspaper reported that two people had been confirmed on Tuesday afternoon and that the government had declared a disaster area. He said the rain continues and the strong winds expected for the next few days could worsen the situation.

KPL stated that the disaster had "left hundreds of people missing" without providing details.

Many parts of Laos have recently been affected.

The dam was built by a joint venture between two South Korean companies with Thai and Laotian partners, and was still under construction.

SK Engineering & Construction, one of the two South Korean partners, said in a statement that "part of the upper zone" of one of the project's five auxiliary dams "were washed away "Sunday night after several days of heavy rain. Repair work was hampered by heavy rains and damage to the dam worsened on Monday, causing overflowing water and flooding of seven out of twelve villages in the region. The company said that it joined relief efforts and was trying to prevent more damage.

Photos and videos posted on social media showed people on the roofs to escape the water, while others were saved. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended the planned meeting of his government and traveled with other ministers and other senior officials in Sanamxay district to monitor relief and relief operations, KPL reported. and the Vientiane Times.

Provincial authorities issued an emergency appeal – clothing, food, drinking water, medicine, cash and other items – from the party, government organizations, business circles, officials, police and military forces and all strata. "

Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia, it has gone from communism to a market economy but remains a one-party state where freedoms are limited. are subject to strict restrictions, which limits the flow of information.

The electricity produced by several hydroelectric dams accounts for a significant portion of Laos' export earnings, with Thailand being a large buyer

KPL said the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy project cost about $ 1.02 billion.Many of the funding came from Thai lenders.

According to the website of the company that built and operates the dam, it is majority owned by SK E & C and Korea Western Power.The Thai power generation company of Ratchaburi, Thailand, holds a 25% stake and the company is the largest in the country. business of

The dam was built to divert the Houay Makchanh, Xe-Namnoy and Xe-Pian rivers into reservoirs feeding a 410 megawatt power plant that is expected to be commissioned in 2019. Only 10% of the energy produced were to be used locally, 90% being exported to Thailand.

Laos is expected to receive According to project appraisal documents, about 30 villages were affected by the project, with more than 2,000 people in eight resettled villages. About 10,000 people live in the affected area, most of them belonging to ethnic minorities.

The project was supposed to be a cash cow for SK E & C, part of the SK Group, one of the top three South Korean conglomerates including SK Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chip maker, and SK Telecom, the largest telecom operator in South Korea.

South Korean agency Yonhap News reported that SK E & C sent its president to Laos and set up an emergency team in Seoul. A dam in Xieng Khouang province in northeastern Laos exploded, damaging infrastructure, farmland and water supplies, but without casualties. The accident of the hydro dam of Nam Ao, with a power of 15 MW, led to hearings in the National Assembly of the country on the safety standards of hydropower projects and the promises of the government of Inspect such projects. cancel those who do not meet the standards, reports the Vientiane Times.

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Lee reports in Seoul, South Korea. Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that SK Hynix is ​​the world's second largest maker of memory chips, not the second largest manufacturer of chips in the world