Hundreds reported missing in Laos after dam collapse

[TomSea]

Hundreds reported missing in Laos after dam collapse

Hundreds of people are reported missing with several dead after a hydro-power dam under construction in southern Laos collapsed causing flash flooding that swept away villages.

The disaster left more than 6,600 people homeless, the Lao News Agency reported on Tuesday. It showed pictures of villagers wading through muddy floodwater carrying belongings. Others boarded rickety wooden boats or stood on the roofs of partially submerged houses.

Officials brought boats to help evacuate people in San Sai district of Attapeu province, where the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydro-power dam is located, as water levels rose after the collapse, ABC Laos news reported.

Read more at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/hundreds-reported-missing-laos-dam-collapse-state-media-180724081605716.html

[thackney]

Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Company (PNPC), which owns the under-construction hydropower dam, reportedly sent out a letter saying it was in a “very dangerous condition” due to heavy rainfall.

Villagers were also urged to evacuate to higher land to avoid “the unfortunate accident” caused by monsoon rain.

In the letter Lee Kan Yeol, the company’s head of resettlement, told his colleagues in Champasak and Attapeu provinces that “the saddle dam D was not safe,” according to Thailand newspaper The Nation.

The letter read: “If the section fails, over five thousand million tonnes of water would flow out and down the Xe Pian river.”

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/993496/laos-dam-collapse-latest-news-dam-failure-attapeu-hydropower-latest-Xepian-Xenamnoy

[thackney]

Ratchburi Electricity Generating Holding Company said in a statement the dam, which it referred to as ‘Saddle Dam D’, was eight meters (26 feet) wide, 770 meters (2,526 feet) long and 16 meters (52 feet) high.

The dam “was fractured and the water had leaked to the downstream area and down to the Xe-Pian River which is about five kilometers from the dam,” said Kijja Sripatthangkura, chief executive officer of Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Company.

International Rivers, a U.S.-based group that works to protect rivers and the rights of communities dependent on them, said the accident exposed “major risks” associated with some dam designs that cannot cope with extreme weather conditions.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/24/over-100-missing-after-laos-dam-collapse.html

[thackney]

...The dam was expected to begin operating by 2019 and to generate approximately 1,879 gigawatt hours of electricity a year, the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company says on its website. Ninety percent of the electricity would be sold to neighboring Thailand, and the other 10 percent within Laos, the company says....

...The dam was designed to generate electricity from water that has been diverted from three rivers — the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian — in the southern Laotian province of Champasack. The Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company says on its website that water from the project would be discharged into the Xe Kong River before it flows into the Mekong....

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/world/asia/laos-dam-collapse-hundreds-missing.html