Baby saved from #Laos dam disaster by Thai cave rescue volunteers

The rescue of a baby boy, terrified and hungry after days without food, has been captured in a viral video showing the infant survivor of a dam collapse in southern Laos being carefully carried through swirling flood waters and waist-high mud.

Footage of volunteers from Thailand rescuing 14 people, including the baby, went viral when it was released on Friday as an increasingly international relief mission scrambles to save lives in a disaster that has left scores dead and missing.

 The survivors were stranded by flood waters after they fled up a hill on Monday as the Xe-Namnoy dam broke under heavy rain, leaving several villages devastated by flash floods.

    The Thai team, who waded several kilometres through rushing water carrying uprooted trees and debris to rescue the group, are fresh from efforts to help free a youth football team trapped in a cave in the north of their country.

 A member of the Thai Rescue Team volunteer group helping a young flood survivor to keep warm close to the swollen river in Attapeu province.

 They have now come to help out in neighbouring Laos, which is poorly equipped to deal with natural disasters of this scale.

    "The boy is four months old. He didn't have fever but he was crying, maybe because of the cold weather," Kengkard Bongkawong, one of the rescuers, who is from Thailand's northeast, told AFP.

  "The baby was crying and looks terrified. Actually they were (all) still terrified of the rushing water."

    The video had been watched nearly half a million times hours after it was posted online on Friday.

    Earlier this week officials said 27 bodies had been retrieved so far, with the country's prime minister reporting 131 missing.

    But on Friday the governor of Attapeu province Leth Xiayaphone revised down the toll to five, saying the larger number previously given was "unconfirmed information".

 A Thai Rescue Team volunteer group rescuing flood survivors, including a baby trapped in a remote village, close to the swollen river in Attapeu province. 

Secretive Communist authorities in Laos are not used to international scrutiny and have blocked access to foreign media, complicating efforts to establish the exact death toll.

    The dam disaster has also raised serious questions over Laos' big bet on hydropower to propel it out of poverty.

Source - TheNation

 

Thousands flee as dam breaks in #Laos

THOUSANDS OF people have been displaced from their homes and an unknown number killed in Laos’ southern Attapeu province following the collapse of part of a hydroelectric dam under construction following heavy rains.

The disaster came hours after an official of the construction firm warned of imminent danger.One of five saddle dams supporting the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy Dam collapsed at 8pm on Monday, releasing 5 billion cubic metres of water. The news of the tragedy only reached Bangkok yesterday morning.

Houses in Attapeu’s southern Sanamxay district were swept away, claiming lives, and several hundred people were missing, according to the state-run Lao News Agency.

 Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended his monthly cabinet meeting and led senior government officials to Sanamxay to monitor rescue and relief efforts.

 Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended his monthly cabinet meeting and led senior government officials to Sanamxay to monitor rescue and relief efforts.

The collapse of the support dam caused flash flooding in six Sanamxay villages – Yai Thae, Hinlad, Mai, Thasengchan, Tha Hin and Samong. Hinlad and Mai were particularly hard hit.

Pictures and videos shown on state-run and social media showed the chaotic evacuation of people from inundated areas. Many people were seen clinging to the roofs of their houses, surrounded by water. 

There were claims on social media of many people dead and missing, but no official report from local authorities as of press time.

Authorities in Attapeu pleaded for agencies to provide emergency aid for the victims, including clothing, food, drinking water and medicine.

Attapeu Planning and Investment Department Director Soulichanh Phonkeo told the Vientiane Times newspaper that some victims were washed away in the torrent, but many managed to grab tree branches and wait for rescue.

“We need a large number of boats to rescue them from the danger area,” he said.

An official of Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Co (PNPC) had on Monday issued a warning of danger at the dam. In a letter, the company’s head of resettlement, Lee Kan Yeol, told colleagues in Champasak and Attapeu provinces that, “Saddle Dam D is not safe and is in very dangerous condition” due to heavy rainfall.

He advised that the saddle dam’s failure would unleash five billion tonnes of water into the Xe Pian River basin. Lee said people living along the river downstream should be moved to higher ground to avoid an “unfortunate accident” if the heavy rain caused one.

The 410-megawatt Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam is expected to generate 1,860 gigawatt-hours of power when completed. The project is budgeted for US$1.2 (Bt40 billion).

PNPC is a joint venture formed in March 2012 by SK Engineering and Construction (which has a 24-per-cent stake), Lao Holding State Enterprise (26 per cent) and Korea Western Power and Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding (RATCH), which together hold the balance of shares.

.

FOR THE BEST GLOBAL HOTEL & FLIGHT BOOKINGS

.

 RATCH director Kijja Sripatthangkura said Saddle Dam D was one of five sections surrounding the main dam and its collapse would not affect power production from the project. 

But he noted that 600 million cubic metres of water had flooded seven villages and affected more than 6,000 people in 1,700 households. His company was coordinating with officials at the site about repairing the damage, he said, but the work could not begin until more water can be released from the main dam.

Pianporn Deetes of the conservation group International Rivers said there were major risks with dams that are not designed to cope with extreme weather conditions such as very heavy rain. And unpredictable extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in the region due to climate change, she said. 

“This disaster also shows the inadequacy of warning systems for the dam construction and operations,” said Pianporn, who has long monitored dams in the Mekong River basin. 

“The warning appears to have to come very late and was ineffective in giving people advance notice to ensure their families’ safety.”

Source - TheNation