Myanmar dam breach floods 85 villages, thousands driven from homes

Evacuees stay in a temple after a dam breach near Swar township in Myanmar, August 29, 2018. REUTERS/Antoni Slodkowski

By Shoon Naing and Antoni Slodkowski

SWAR CREEK DAM, Myanmar (Reuters) – As many as 85 villages were flooded in Myanmar after a dam failed, unleashing waters that blocked a major highway and forced more than 63,000 people from their homes, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday.

The disaster spotlights safety concerns about dams in Southeast Asia after last month’s collapse of a hydroelectric dam in neighboring Laos that displaced thousands of people and killed at least 27.

Firefighters, troops and officials launched a desperate rescue effort on Wednesday after the spillway of an irrigation dam burst at Swar creek in central Myanmar, sending a torrent of water through villages and the nearby towns of Swar and Yedashe.

A flooded area after a dam breach is seen near Swar township in Myanmar, August 29, 2018. REUTERS/Antoni Slodkowski

A flooded area after a dam breach is seen near Swar township in Myanmar, August 29, 2018. REUTERS/Antoni Slodkowski

By Thursday morning the water was receding, but two people remained missing and were feared to have been washed away, said Min Thu, deputy administrator of Yedashe.

“People whose villages are on higher ground are preparing to go back to their villages,” he told Reuters.

The ruptured spillway had flooded 85 villages, affecting more than 63,000 people and submerging a section of highway, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

Traffic between Myanmar’s major cities of Yangon and Mandalay and the capital, Naypyitaw, was disrupted after the flooding damaged a bridge on the highway linking the cities.

INTERNAL PROBE

Work was underway on Thursday to repair the dam, where the water level had dropped by several meters, exposing sandy banks.

A priority was to get as much water into the reservoir as possible before the dry season when it is needed for irrigation, said Kaung Myat Thein, an irrigation official at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation.

He said a probe would seek the cause of the dam breach.

Railways are seen under water after the spillway of an irrigation dam burst at Swar creek in Swar township, Myanmar, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Ko Lwin

Railways are seen under water after the spillway of an irrigation dam burst at Swar creek in Swar township, Myanmar, August 30, 2018. REUTERS/Ko Lwin

“The retaining wall of the spillway sank into the foundation about 4-5 feet, causing the flooding, but the main dam is intact,” said Kaung Myat Thein.

Days before the breach, authorities had given the all-clear to the dam, which can hold 216,350 acre-feet of water, despite residents’ concerns about overspill, state-run media have said.

Kaung Myat Thein said the dam was regularly inspected and a spillway collapse could not have been predicted.

“We could not know one day before, one hour before,” he said.

FIELDS RUINED

As floodwaters receded, elders gathered at Oo Yin Hmu, a village of about 1,000 people only a few miles downstream from the dam, to review the damage.

Paddy fields stretching from the edge of the village were inundated. It would be years before they could be planted with rice again, said Zaw Zaw, a 45-year-old farmer.

Residents ran to higher ground to escape the floodwaters, he said, but many lost their homes and possessions and were expected to ask the regional government for compensation.

“My house was at the northern part of the village and all houses in the northern part didn’t survive,” said Pan Ei Phyu, 24, a villager who escaped with her family, buffalos and cows.

“All of my farmland is turned into mud now. I don’t have land or anything else anymore. I don’t know what to do.”

 

(Additional reporting by Simon Lewis and Thu Thu Aung in YANGON; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Darren Schuettler)

Hunt on for survivors as Indonesia’s quake toll climbs to 131

Rescue team members prepare to find people trapped inside a mosque after an earthquake hit on Sunday in Pemenang, Lombok Island, Indonesia, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Beawiharta

By Angie Teo and Kanupriya Kapoor

KARANGPANGSOR, Indonesia (Reuters) – The death toll from last weekend’s powerful earthquake on Indonesia’s Lombok island rose to 131 on Wednesday as rescuers found more people crushed under collapsed buildings, though some still held out hope of finding survivors.

“We don’t know for sure how many people are alive under the rubble,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) told reporters in Jakarta.

Policemen stand as heavy equipment move debris for try to find people trapped inside a mosque after an earthquake hit on Sunday in Pemenang, Lombok Island, Indonesia, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Beawiharta

Policemen stand as heavy equipment move debris for try to find people trapped inside a mosque after an earthquake hit on Sunday in Pemenang, Lombok Island, Indonesia, August 8, 2018. REUTERS/Beawiharta

“There are reports … that there are people buried alive, it is a critical time for immediate evacuation,” he added, without giving details.

BNPB had previously put the number of dead at 105, including two on the western neighboring island of Bali, which also felt the 6.9 magnitude quake. Sutopo said the figure would rise still further.

Lombok had already been hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on July 29 that killed 17 people and briefly stranded several hundred trekkers on the slopes of a volcano.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami killed 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.

A woman was pulled alive on Tuesday from under a grocery store that fell apart in the rural north of the tropical holiday island, near the epicenter of Sunday’s quake.

Rescuers dug through the rubble of a mosque on Wednesday, hoping to reach the aunt of a sprinter who became a national hero last month at the under-20 world championships in Finland.

Salama, 52, was at a prayer class in the Karangpangsor village mosque when the quake struck. She is an aunt by marriage of Lalu Muhammad Zohri, who just over a year ago could barely afford running shoes and was hardly known outside his village.

The 18-year-old became a household name almost overnight in July when he won the 100 meters gold at the World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland. Now he carries the hopes of Indonesia at the Asian Games that the Southeast Asian nation is preparing to host in the next few weeks.

He lives two doors away from his aunt’s home.

Rescuers used a mechanical digger to clear a jumble of metal rods and concrete beside the still-intact green dome of the mosque, but there were no signs that the woman was alive and relatives appeared to have lost hope.

“Hopefully, now, with the arrival of heavy equipment, we can get her remains back,” said Husni, another family member.

Boats arrive at shore to evacuate people on the island of Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia, August 6, 2018, in this still image taken from a drone video obtained from social media. Melissa Delport/@trufflejournal/via REUTERS

Boats arrive at shore to evacuate people on the island of Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia, August 6, 2018, in this still image taken from a drone video obtained from social media. Melissa Delport/@trufflejournal/via REUTERS

“GHOST TOWNS”

As hopes of finding more survivors faded, a humanitarian crisis loomed for thousands left homeless and in desperate need of clean water, food, medicine, and shelter.

About three-quarters of Lombok’s north has been without electricity since Sunday, officials said, and aid workers are finding some hamlets hard to reach because bridges and roads were torn up by the disaster.

“Teams are speaking of coming across ghost towns, villages that have essentially been abandoned,” Matthew Cochrane of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in Geneva on Tuesday.

He added that 80 percent of buildings had been damaged or destroyed, with thousands displaced.

Thousands of tourists have left Lombok since Sunday, fearing further earthquakes, some on extra flights provided by airlines and others on ferries to Bali.

Officials said that nearly 8,400 tourists and resort workers had been evacuated from the three Gili islands off the northwest coast of Lombok, where two people died, emptying out a destination popular for its white beaches and turquoise waters.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Neil Fullick)