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Lao dam disaster points to Communist Party failings
[AsiaTimes] Collapse of Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Dam may have killed hundreds while exposing the poor governance and endemic corruption under hidebound communist rule.The dam is operated by Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company (PNPC), a joint venture between the state-run Lao Holding State Enterprise, one Thai and two South Korean companies. Asia Times’ calls to representatives of the Lao company went unanswered. The government and the dam’s operating company are likely to place the blame solely on the high levels of rainfall, say analysts, rather than question whether it was the fault of poor standards in the construction of the dam. The construction standards of numerous hydropower projects in Laos have long been questioned by industry experts. Many are built too quickly and by subpar methods, analysts say, while the government rarely inspects the projects, giving the developers carte blanche over standards and safety measures. The operating company of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Dam “managed the water in the reservoir very poorly, and so they are responsible. However, government oversight was lax, but I am not sure if the people will blame the government or just the company. We will have to see about that,” says Ian Baird, a Laos expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. Laos has been controlled by the communist Lao Revolutionary Party since 1975. It only opened up to the international community in the late 1980s. Some experts say this week’s disaster was caused by a combination of a haphazardly built dam and weeks of heavy rainfall. According to one estimate, rainfall has been three times heavier than usual. Still, Laos is known for its unpredictable downpours which, commentators say, the hydropower plant operators must have understood before starting their projects. “There are major risks from dam designs that are unable to cope with extreme weather events and conditions, such as very heavy rains. Unpredictable and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Laos and the region due to climate change,” reads a statement by International Rivers, an advocacy group. Heavy rainfall this month has also caused significant damage in other parts of the country. Dozens of villages in Oudomxay and Luang Prabang, two provinces in the country’s north, were hit by floods and landslides after severe rainstorms. Nobody is thought to have died in these incidents, but more than 3,500 households were affected in Oudomxay province, local media reported. Such was the damage that Party General Secretary Bounnhang Vorachith and senior military officials reportedly visited the area on July 22, the day before the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Dam burst.
Posted by: 3dc 2018-07-29 |
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