Dam Collapses in Laos, Killing Villagers

By Richard S. Ehrlich

BANGKOK, Thailand -- At least 26 people died, hundreds were missing and 6,600 left homeless after a partially constructed dam collapsed in southern Laos, dumping more than 1 billion gallons (5 billion liters) of churning water onto villages below, official reports from the communist country said.

The collapse of the partially constructed hydroelectric dam on the night of July 23 in Attapeu province was described as an accident caused by heavy rain.

The 1 billion gallons (5 billion liters) of water which roared out equals 2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to one report.

"The incident was caused by a continuous rainstorm which caused a high volume of water to flow into the project's reservoir," the dam's Thailand-based Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding reportedly said in an English-language statement.

Rainwater "fractured" the "Saddle Dam D" and "leaked to the downstream area," it said.

The dam's other investors include South Korea's Korea Western Power and the Laos government's Lao Holding State Enterprise.

"Saddle Dam D" was described as 2,300 feet (770 meters) long, 53 feet (16 meters) high, and 26 feet (8 meters) thick.

"We believe parts of the upper part of the dam were lost due to heavy rainfall, and water overflowed from the supply dam," the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) quoted a spokesman for South Korea's SK Engineering & Construction which also invested in the dam.

Photographs from the scene showed distraught villagers clinging to any available roof where the flood inundated homes and other buildings.

Victims also climbed onto floating objects, including boats used for transport and fishing on the river.

Where water was less deep, long lines of people carrying whatever belongings they could hold, waded toward higher ground.

From the air above the huge, rural, flooded expanse, the highest buildings appeared like tiny dots in a brown soup amid clusters of jungle trees -- as far as they eye could see.

"The disaster has claimed several human lives, left hundreds of people missing and more than 1,300 families -- 6,600 people -- homeless," the government-run Lao News Agency said.

Flash floods hit at least six villages, the agency said.

Tons of gushing water also swept away an unknown number buildings as it tumbled from the broken dam and flooded the valley along the Boloven Plateau.

Sanamxay district where the collapse occurred is about half-way between Thailand and Vietnam, and close to the Laos-Cambodia border.

Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith led his cabinet and other senior officials to Sanamxay on July 24 to monitor rescue and relief efforts, the Lao News Agency said.

"Authorities of Attapeu Province have urged the [Communist] Party, government organizations, business community, officials, police and military forces and people of all strata to provide emergency aid for the victims of the disaster, namely: clothing, food items, drinking water, medicines, cash and other relief items," the Lao News Agency said.

Between 1964 and 1973, U.S. warplanes dumped more than 2 million tons of bombs on Laos -- equal to about 1 ton of explosives for every person -- during the region's Vietnam War.

After the communists achieved victory in 1975, their regime limped along, eventually supported by U.S. and other international aid, plus investment by foreigners hoping to cash in on the country's rich natural resources.

Impoverished Laos has been constructing several hydroelectric dams along its rivers, to become "the battery of Southeast Asia" and sell the electricity to neighboring countries.

Laos is lightly populated and has very little infrastructure, so it would need only 10 percent of the electricity from the stricken Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Hydroelectric Power Project.

The other 90 percent was to be sold to rapidly modernizing Thailand which is also dependent on neighboring Myanmar -- mostly for Bangkok's increasing power needs.

The mass of water which cascaded down from the dam immediately flooded the Xe Pian River below which flows south before crossing into Cambodia where it becomes a tributary of the larger Mekong River.

The $1.2 billion dam project is operated by Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company based in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, as a multinational venture agreed upon in 2012.

The dam was to offer electricity for sale to Thailand starting in 2019.

Lao officials described the collapsed site as a "saddle dam" also known as an auxiliary or subsidiary dam, which contains water that has been diverted after the main dam reservoir overflows.

"A saddle dam is a dike or a wall built at the edge of a lake or reservoir to protect nearby land from ooding," said Antonya Nelson, an American writing on the website Home Ground which describes landscape terminology.

"The name derives from the low dip in the landscape -- or saddle -- across which the dam is constructed. All four dams at Horsetooth Reservoir in Colorado are saddle dams," Mr. Nelson wrote.

Power-technology.com which reports on the global energy industry said a saddle dam "is used to hold water beyond what is held by the main body of the dam."

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Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California, reporting news from Asia since 1978 and winner of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author of three non-fiction books about Thailand, including "'Hello My Big Big Honey!' Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews," "60 Stories of Royal Lineage," and "Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since 1946." Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the chapter "Ceremonies and Regalia" in a book published in English and Thai titled, "King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in Perspective." Mr. Ehrlich's newest book, "Sheila Carfenders, Doctor Mask & President Akimbo" portrays a female mental patient who is abducted to Asia by her San Francisco psychiatrist.

His online sites are:

https://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com

https://www.facebook.com/SheilaCarfenders/

https://www.amazon.com/Sheila-Carfenders-Doctor-President-Akimbo/dp/1973789353/

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