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Bodies Recovered from Rubble of Catastrophic Dam Collapse in Laos

by David Boyle

   PHNOM PENH --

   More than a dozen people have been confirmed dead in the wake of
   Monday's catastrophic dam collapse in southern Laos that left thousands
   of residents homeless and hundreds more missing.

   The Vientiane Times says it learned from the district governor that 19
   people have been found dead, while the French News Agency (AFP),
   quoting a Thai consular official, said the bodies of 17 people have
   been found in the rubble.

   The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam collapsed in the southeastern province of
   Attapeu late Monday, releasing as much as five billion cubic meters of
   water throughout the district, washing away hundreds of homes and
   leaving scores of residents homeless.

   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.

   State news agency KPL put the number of displaced downstream from the
   dam in Attapeu province, some 550 kilometers south of the capital,
   Vientiane, at 6,600.

   Just hours before the disaster on Monday night, the consortium building
   the project warned in a letter that millions of tons of water would
   surge down the Xe-Pian River if the dangerously unsafe dam failed.

   "And within hours of this letter in the evening, the dam did actually
   break. So it's clear that the warning system appears to have been
   inadequate and appears to have been too late for many people," Maureen
   Harris, Southeast Asia director at International Rivers, told VOA.

   Thousands of people have been displaced downstream from the dam, one of
   five that make up the Xe-Pian-Xe-Namnoy dam cascade project on the
   Bolaven Plateau, Harris said.

   "And it's what's called a saddle dam, meaning it's a supporting dam for
   a main dam, a primary dam. And it's built to confine the reservoir to
   enable a higher level of water elevation, a storage which obviously
   explains, I guess, why there's so much water that's been released on
   the break," Harris said.

   The 410-megawatt project that was set to be completed next year is
   being built by Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC, at an
   estimated cost of about $1 billion.

   The consortium is made up of Korean firms SK Engineering and
   Construction, and Korea Western Power, as well as Thailand's Ratchaburi
   Electricity Generating Holding Company, and Lao Holding State
   Enterprise.

   In their warning letter, PNPC said the saddle dam had become unsafe due
   to heavy rainfall and would release five million tons of water into the
   Xe Pian River if it failed. The project reservoir is intended to rise
   73 meters high by 1,600 meters long, with the capacity to store about
   1,043 million cubic meters of water.

   The Laos Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has not
   responded to VOA inquiries, while the Mekong River Commission, the MRC,
   said it was investigating the disaster and would comment Wednesday.

   Videos and photos posted to Facebook by state media showed huge areas
   inundated and people stranded on the roofs of their flooded houses.
   Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith is pictured visiting the affected
   area.

   The Xe-Pian-Xe-Namnoy dams flow down into the Sekong River through
   Cambodia, and there are concerns of potential downstream impact.

   Water levels across the Mekong region have been rising rapidly since
   July 15, in one case by more than four meters in the Laotian city of
   Luang Prabang, due to extremely high rainfall caused by tropical Storm
   Son-Ting, according to the MRC.

   Harris said the incident raised concerns about the risks around dam
   designs unable to cope with extreme weather events exacerbated by
   climate change, and the adequacy of warning systems, including for dams
   currently under construction.

   More than 70 dams are currently under construction or planned in Laos,
   including several on the Mekong mainstream. Harris said the roles and
   responsibilities of private companies developing these projects should
   be seriously questioned, in light of the disaster.

   VOA Laos contributed to this article.