Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post Reply
User avatar
Undaunted
Posts: 2567
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 8:47 am
Has thanked: 23 times
Been thanked: 368 times

Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Undaunted »

"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Gaybutton »

See also: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... s/30350744

What makes it even worse is the likelihood that the death toll will go way up.
__________________________________________________________________

Hundreds are missing in Laos after a dam breaks and floods nearby towns

By Carly Walsh and Ben Westcott, CNN

July 24, 2018

Image

(CNN) - Hundreds of people are missing and thousands more have been displaced after a dam collapsed in southern Laos, causing flash flooding across six villages, according to the state news agency.

The Lao News Agency said the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed at 8 p.m. on Monday night, triggering the catastrophic release of 5 billion cubic meters of water.

Houses were washed away in the torrent, which caused several deaths and left more than 6,000 people homeless.
Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended a planned monthly government meeting to monitor the rescue and relief efforts, the agency said.

Authorities have made a public appeal for emergency aid for the victims of the flooding, including clothing, food, water and medicine.

Pauline Arce, regional disaster law officer for the International Federation of the Red Cross Asia-Pacific, said the Laos National Disaster Prevention and Control Committee had met to discuss the disaster.

She said the IFRC was preparing to issue emergency relief funds for Laos within the next 24 hours, but was already sending relief kits to help 1,000 people displaced by the floods and is helping with search and rescue operations.

The disaster is so far known to have affected at least six villages in the Sanamxay district of Attapeu province. There is no official information yet about how badly the dam has been damaged, what caused it to break or when the flooding is expected to recede.

Lao villagers stranded on a roof of a house in Attapeu province on 24 July.

US non-governmental organization International Rivers said the break was caused by ongoing heavy monsoon conditions and heavy rain in Laos.

Construction on the dam began in February 2013 and commercial operations were expected to begin in 2018. It was due to cost an estimated $1.02 billion.

The South Korean construction company building the dam, SK Construction Co., has dispatched a rescue crew including helicopters and boats to Laos, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Tuesday.

According to the ministry, 53 Koreans who were working at the site have been evacuated.

https://us.cnn.com/2018/07/24/asia/laos ... index.html
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Gaybutton »

Bodies of 17 recovered after Laos dam disaster: Thai consul official

July 25, 2018

By Agence France-Presse

Champasak, Laos

The bodies of 17 people have been recovered after flash floods caused by a dam breach in southern Laos, a Thai consular official at the scene told AFP Wednesday.

A wall of water was unleashed Monday after parts of the dam were washed away, sending floods surging downstream, sweeping away homes and leaving an unknown number of people missing.

"There are 17 bodies recovered so far, but we can not estimate the number of missing yet," Chana Miencharoen, said, adding roof-level flood waters have submerged several villages near the Xe-Namnoy dam.

"All the dead are Laotian... more than 6,000 are affected from eight villages near the dam," he said, from the relief centre in Attepeu province, where the disaster occurred on Monday.

The remote area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged by the flash flooding or completely washed away.

Communist Laos is criss-crossed by a vast network of rivers and scores of dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries like Thailand.

The South Korean partner in the hydropower project said Wednesday it discovered the upper part of the structure had washed away 24 hours before it collapsed.

SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered the damage to an auxiliary dam at around 9:00 pm Sunday local time.

"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating (nearby) villagers downstream," it said in a statement.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... s/30350779
__________________________________________________________

Calls for relief aid as hundreds missing in dam collapse in Laos, PM onsite

July 25, 2018

Laos’ Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended his Cabinet meeting on Tuesday after an under construction saddle dam of the Xe-Pian Dam in the Southern province of Attapeu collapsed in heavy rains, causing flooding of hundreds of households and a massive evacuation effort, according to the Laos News Agency (KPL).

The PM, his cabinet members and other senior officials went to nearby Sanamxay to monitor the rescue and relief efforts underway for flood victims.

The collapse of the Xe-Pian Xe-Nam Noy hydropower dam on Monday night caused flash flooding in six villages of Sanamxay district, including Yai Thae, Hinlad, Mai, Thasengchan, Tha Hin, and Samong. Hinlad and Mai villages were hard hit.

The disaster has reportedly claimed several lives, left hundreds of people missing and more than 1,300 families (6,600 people) homeless.

The Attapeu Provincial Administration Office has asked for emergency relief aid for flood victims in Sanamxay district. The authority has requested clothing, food items, drinking water, medicine, cash and other relief items, reported KPL online.

Being built by the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company (PNPC), the 410 MW Xe PianXe Namnoy hydroelectric power project is located in the southern region of the Lao PDR and is estimated to annually generate energy of approximately 1,860 GWh, according to www.powertechnology.com.

PNPC is a joint venture formed in March 2012 by SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C), Korea Western Power (KOWEPO), Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding (RATCH), and Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE). SK E&C hold a 24 per cent stake in PNPC, LHSE 26 per cent, and RATCH and KOWEPO equally own the remaining share in the project.

The project, which is estimated to cost US$1.02 billion (Bt34.1 billion), is the first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project to be undertaken by South Korean companies in Laos.

The feasibility study for the hydroelectric project was completed in November 2008. Construction of the project began in February 2013 and commercial operations were expected to begin in 2018.

https://pattayaone.news/en/calls-for-re ... pm-onsite/
Jun

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Jun »

Civil engineering projects like this should be build with a large safety margin. Certainly, failure should not be expected early in life & without earthquakes or something.

So, I'm not sure what the cause is. If there is a Korean & a Thai contractor, then I would hope the engineering design & stress calculations should be satisfactory. If it were, for example, cutting corners in the materials or construction, with or without backhanders to smooth that over, then there are an awful lot more reservoirs under construction in the region which would present a threat to residents & visitors. Including, for the larger installations, those in downstream countries.

I hope they arrange an independent investigation, by an external organization.

And before I get too judgmental, there are occasional failings in developed western countries. Examples include bridges collapsing, catastrophic fatal fires and masonry falling off the ceilings in airports.
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Gaybutton »

Laos is going to get tough on dams? How nice. Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse has left - especially when damage was spotted a day before the dam collapse and nothing was done to evacuate or even bother to warn the people who are now victims.
______________________

Laos gets tough on dams

July 26, 2018

By Pratch Rujivanarom
THE NATION

New regulations and safety procedures to be enforced; death toll rises to 26.

Two days after the country was swamped by one of the worst dam disasters in its history, Lao authorities have ordered new safety |procedures for hydropower dam projects.

The collapse of the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam in the southern Lao province of Attapeu on Monday has left at least 26 people dead and an estimated 100 missing as of yesterday.

Lao Energy and Mine Minister Khammany Inthirath yesterday announced new regulations to ensure safety of all hydropower dams in the country, as well as proper water management to reduce risks from floods damaging people’s lives and properties from water discharge, especially during storms in the monsoon season.

On Monday night, the rapidly rising water level in the reservoir of Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam following continuous heavy rains, damaged the supporting saddle dam, causing devastating floods in the downstream area.

More than 7,000 people had been displaced as of yesterday after large areas of Attapeu and Champasak provinces were inundated.

The overflowing water from the dam also raised the levels of the Mekong River and caused floods in the nearby Steung Treng province in Cambodia.

Laos’ Energy and Mine Ministry said in a statement that the country has been hit by extraordinarily severe rainy weather due to the impact of tropical storm Son Tinh, triggering floods in many parts of the country. There was also a danger to the stability of other hydropower dams.

The ministry ordered the operators of all hydropower dams to closely monitor the weather and precipitation as well as the water levels in the reservoirs to prevent damage to the dams.

Every dam operator will have to submit a report on the water situation, the electricity generation plan, the condition of the dams’ facilities, and the emergency response plan |to the ministry once every seven days.

The ministry also made it mandatory for all dam operators to collaborate with local authorities to draft an emergency response plan in case of disasters to warn people and evacuate them if necessary.

Also, if the dams needed to change the water outflow rate, they have to notify people downstream at least seven days in advance to allow them to prepare for the impact from the discharge.

According to the Lao Energy and Mine Ministry, there are 54 operational hydropower dams across the country.

Laos has heavily invested in hydropower in recent years, as the country is pursuing its national strategy to become the “battery of Asia”, by generating power from its rich water resources and selling the electricity to neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, Chainarong Setthachua, a lecturer at Maha Sarakham University, said the disaster could have been prevented if the owners of the hydropower project had adhered to safety principles and had been equipped with an emergency response system.

“This dam did not collapse because of the overwhelming water level in the reservoir, as the Lao officials and the project owners tried to explain,” Chainarong stressed.

“The reservoir was not even full when a part of the dam subsided and collapsed. This clearly shows that the true cause of this disaster was improper construction of the |dam and the constructors of this project are fully responsible for all damages.”

He said the project’s partners must provide full compensation to every person affected by the disaster, otherwise they would be violating the principles of business and human rights protection.

The Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam project is a joint venture between four companies from South Korea, Laos and Thailand with a total budget of US$1 billion (Bt33 billion).

The project, with electricity generating capacity of 410 megawatts, was scheduled to start commercial operations next year.

The dam reservoir has a total area of 522 square kilometres with water storage capacity of around 1 billion cubic metres.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... l/30350827
User avatar
Undaunted
Posts: 2567
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 8:47 am
Has thanked: 23 times
Been thanked: 368 times

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Undaunted »

Additional info on dam dissaster effect on Cambodians:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/ ... 53073.html
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
Jun

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by Jun »

The Nation wrote:“This dam did not collapse because of the overwhelming water level in the reservoir, as the Lao officials and the project owners tried to explain,” Chainarong stressed.

“The reservoir was not even full when a part of the dam subsided and collapsed. This clearly shows that the true cause of this disaster was improper construction of the |dam and the constructors of this project are fully responsible for all damages.”
I should jolly well hope it is not due to overwhelming water level. Reservoirs are equipped with ways of controlling the max level, including in come cases the simple method of allowing the water to run over the top.

If the cause is improper construction, which I don't know, but consider to be highly probable given that a few bribes would enable corners to be cut, then it follows that some cosmetic external checks will not guarantee the safety of other installations. These will not detect substandard material in the core of a dam structure.
fedssocr1

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by fedssocr1 »

I just read that further north Luang Prabang is also threatened now by a dam farther upstream and the threat of landslides. And of course Nan and other NE Thai provinces have been suffering lots of flooding too. And rainy season still has a long way to go
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/as ... n-10571080
fountainhall

Re: Hundreds Missing In Laos Dam Collapse

Post by fountainhall »

Although it is 15 years since I was in Luang Prabang, most of the town itself sits quite high off the river. I stayed at a guesthouse by the river and it was quite a way down to catch a boat up to the Pak Ou caves. I think the old Royal Palace would be most at risk. Hopefully it will escape flooding.
Post Reply