At least 26 people have been confirmed dead with 131 people still missing and more than 3,000 awaiting rescue after a dam collapsed late Monday in a remote part of land-locked Laos, according to Laos authority.
State media showed pictures of villagers, some with young children, stranded on the roofs of submerged houses. Others showed villagers trying to board wooden boats to safety in Attapeu Province, the southernmost part of the country.
Officials have brought boats to evacuate people in San Sai district of Attapeu Province, where the Xe-Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam is located, as water levels rise after the collapse, ABC Laos news reported.
“The disaster has claimed several lives, left hundreds of people missing and more than 1,300 families homeless,” it reported.
The South Korean company that has a stake in the project said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers near the site.
“We are running an emergency team and planning to help evacuate and rescue residents in villages near the dam,” a SK Engineering and Construction spokesman said.
The 1-billion-US-dollar project was to build two dams with five auxiliary dams used to hold water beyond what is held by the main dams.
Another official of SK Engineering and Construction said the company ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as it became clear that the dam could collapse.
Later, the company said in a statement the upper part of the supply dam was lost by torrential rains on July 22 but its repair work did not go smoothly due to the rains and more portions of the dam were fractured and overflowed in the following day.
