Last month (23/7), a deadly flood striked Attapeu and Champasak provinces in Laos after the collapse of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydroelectric dam, a USD 1.2 billion hydropower project partly financed by South Korea.
The 410 megawatt capacity dam was still under construction when the breach happened. It was due to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the project website.
Reportedly, 5 billion cubic liters--equivalent to 2 million Olympic-size swimming pools--swept villages away. Roughly 13,000 people from 13 villages were affected by this catastrophe.
Ever since then, donations and relief efforts were given and offered to Lao government. As of Tuesday, August 28, all donations for Attapeu totaled about 130 billion kip (USD 15.2 million), with about 21 billion kip (USD 2.5 million) in cash, according to officials.
Laotians have expressed concern over whether authorities will be transparent about how funds donated to help those affected by the disaster will be used.
"All [Lao] kip, [Thai] baht, and dollar currencies from local and international donations are not being used in any administrative sectors, but will be effectively applied in the emergency relief and rehabilitation for those affected by the dam," Baikham Khattiya, Lao's deputy minister of labor and social welfare and a member of the National Disaster Management Committee, told reporters on July 31.
The construction of new homes for flood victims in one sector of hard-hit Sanamxay district is now more than 60 percent completed and is expected to be finished at the end of August, said district chief Bounhome Phommasane.
However, Attapeu province had problems in the past with transparency in the distribution of donations for those affected by flooding from Typhoon Ketsana in 2009, which killed about a dozen people and caused USD 94.2 million worth of damage in southern Laos, according to state media reports.
Read more: Lao Government Gives 'Inappropriate' Compensation for Dam Disaster Victims
"At that time, donations were flooding into [supply] warehouses, but they were not distributed to the affected people," an official from a civil society group who used to work in Attapeu province told RFA last week.
There remains concern that donor money for the latest disaster may not reach those affected, as occurred with donations in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana.
"Inspectors from the prime minister's office went down to Attapeu to investigate the donations," the official continued. "As a result, the governor was fired a year later."
Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Laotians living in temporary camps in Attapeu province have appealed to the Lao government for more food, basic necessities, and cooking utensils, saying that officials have failed to deliver on a pledge to help them.
The appeal comes as the province is getting hit by additional monsoon rains that have prompted Lao officials to open dam floodgates in parts of the country to prevent similar disaster.
Source: RFA, CNN