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Families Search for Recompense a Year After Deadly Laos Dam Collapse

Zsombor Peter

   BANGKOK - One year after a catastrophic dam collapse in southern Laos
   killed dozens of people and displaced thousands, rights groups are
   demanding that multinational companies behind the $1 billion project do
   more for the hundreds of families still living in cramped shelters on
   meager rations.

   On the night of July 23, 2018, an auxiliary -- or saddle -- dam of the
   Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower project collapsed, sending a wall of water
   crashing through more than a dozen villages. More than 7,000 people in
   Laos and thousands more in neighboring Cambodia were forced from their
   homes.

   Homes and farms were wiped out. In the aftermath, one survivor told VOA
   that the water hit his village "like a tsunami."

   The Lao government put the final death toll at 49, with another 22
   missing, although rights groups say the official tally may be a "gross
   underestimation."

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