Attapeu , Laos – The torrent of water unleashed in a deadly Laos dam collapse has drained into Cambodia, forcing thousands to be evacuated, as rescuers on Thursday battled monsoon rains to find scores of Laotians still missing after whole villages were washed away.
Twenty-seven people have been confirmed dead, with 131 still missing, after the Xe-Namnoy dam collapsed on Monday in a remote southern corner of Laos, leaving villagers with little time to escape.
It is an unprecedented accident to strike the hydropower industry in Laos, where the Communist government has dammed large sections of its myriad waterways to generate electricity that is mostly consumed by its neighbours.
The search and rescue effort entered a third day Thursday, with China, Vietnam and Thailand sending in specialists, while villagers picked through their wrecked, mud-caked homes for possessions as the flood waters receded.
Thousands of villagers downstream in Cambodia have also been forced to flee as the water once held back by the dam flowed south.
“Water is still rising, so more people will be evacuated,” Men Kong, a government spokesman in Cambodia’s Stung Streng province, told AFP.
In Laos, Chinese rescuers in life jackets and helmets joined local soldiers searching for the missing Thursday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene, while community volunteers pitched in with private boats to return to villages still totally submerged.
“Water is still rising, so more people will be evacuated,” Men Kong, a government spokesman in Cambodia’s Stung Streng province, told AFP.
In Laos, Chinese rescuers in life jackets and helmets joined local soldiers searching for the missing Thursday, according to an AFP reporter at the scene, while community volunteers pitched in with private boats to return to villages still totally submerged.
