Qualla: 2018 Laos Dam Collapse

2018 Laos Dam Collapse: Introduction

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Engineers knew something was wrong on the morning of 23 July 2018. Documents later obtained by Agence France-Presse showed that surveyors had found eleven centimetres of subsidence at the centre of Saddle Dam D — an auxiliary earthfill dam in the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric project in southern Laos — several days before the collapse. South Korean contractors reported the damage to the project company at least a day in advance. Repair crews were mobilised, but the heavy rain that had saturated the dam kept them from reaching it in time. That evening, around 8 p.m., the dam gave way. Floodwaters tore through six villages in Sanamxay district — Yai Thae, Hinlad, Ban Mai, Thasengchan, Tha Hin, and Samong — washing away homes, roads, and bridges in the dark. By the following morning, the scale of the disaster was still unknown, because the affected area was densely forested, had no mobile phone coverage, and all the roads were gone.

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2018 Laos Dam Collapse: A Dream of Being Asia's Battery

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Construction of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy system had begun in 2013. The project — a $1.2 billion joint venture between South Korea's SK Engineering and Construction, Korea Western Power, Thailand's Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, and the Lao government's Holding State Ente...

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2018 Laos Dam Collapse: The Night Six Villages Drowned

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The warning letter had been sent. Earlier on 23 July, Lee Kang Yeol, head of the project's Resettlement Office, wrote to provincial officials in Champasak and Attapeu Provinces urging immediate evacuation of the Xe Pian river valley. The message arrived too late, or did not trave...

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2018 Laos Dam Collapse: Responses Across Borders

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Lao Prime Minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, cut short his schedule and travelled to the disaster zone. South Korean President Moon Jae-in — taking the unusual step of directing a foreign relief operation because a South Korean company was involved — ordered a response team deplo...

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2018 Laos Dam Collapse: What the Collapse Left Behind

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Survivors did not need to wait for official reports to articulate what had failed. Many said they received evacuation warnings only hours before the floodwaters reached them. Environmental organisations that had long criticised Laos's dam-building ambitions noted that the collaps...

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