At least one person is missing and nearly 50,000 people have been evacuated after the sluice gates of a dam in central Myanmar burst, flooding around 100 villages on Wednesday morning.

State media reported that the Swar Chaung dam in Yedashe township, Bago region, began to overflow on Monday but told residents there was no cause for concern. At around 5:30am on Wednesday, however, a deluge of water burst out of the dam, inundating acres of rice fields and causing a bridge on a highway connecting Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar’s biggest cities, to buckle.

“The damage is not bad, but the bridge is unusable because the water is still receding,” said Aung Zaw Htay, an official from the Myanmar Fire Services Department.Authorities have not yet released any casualty figures.

The Swar Chaung dam was built around 2001, according to Kyaw Myint Hlaing, the director-general of Myanmar’s irrigation department. He said the cause of the breach had not yet been identified, but he ruled out a flaw in the dam’s design.

“The design of the dam’s spillway is like the beak of a duck. One of the ‘beaks’ broke, but the dam itself has not broken. This is related to the monsoon, but also related to unknown factors,” he said.

“We are trying our best to find a temporary solution to stop the remaining water behind the dam from overflowing,” he said.

The breach occurred after a series of earlier floods in southern and central Myanmar in late July, during which the authorities only instructed many residents to evacuate after their homes were already under several feet of water.

About 150,000 people were displaced, many of whom have become reliant on private food donations after their crops were destroyed. Residents of one flooded village in Bago region said authorities had only provided aid to pregnant women and mothers of children under six months old.

A hydroelectric dam in southern Laos collapsed in July, killing at least 27 people and displacing thousands. When asked if the Swar Chaung failure resembled the Laos disaster, Kyaw Myint said: “I’m not familiar with the dam in Laos.”

Officials said the plains below the dam were still flooded on Wednesday evening, but that the water covering the highway was slowly receding. Aung Zaw Htay, the fire department official, said his team’s priority was to clear the area in order to return the roads to working condition.

As in earlier floods, Myanmar authorities have placed much of the responsibility to avoid danger on the victims. The fire department officialsaid that by the time his team arrived“the residents were already evacuating themselves”.

“The villagers have had experiences dealing with it, so there wasn’t much trouble. The villagers who live around here know about the possibility of flooding,” he said.</s>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 neighbouring 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.

Flooding at the dam site has receded, Zaw Lwin Tun, the deputy director general of the Irrigation and Water Utilization Management Department, told the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

“The collapse is caused by the damaged spillway,” the paper quoted him as saying. “The dam is in good condition.”

The ruptured spillway had flooded 85 villages, affecting more than 63,000 people and submerging a section of highway, the paper added.

Days earlier, 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.

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 them.</s>IN KYIN KONE, Myanmar: More than 50,000 people have evacuated their homes in central Myanmar after part of a dam failed on Wednesday (Aug 29), inundating communities and damaging a bridge on a major highway, officials said.

The incident spotlights safety concerns about dams in Southeast Asia following last month's collapse of a hydroelectric dam in neighbouring Laos that displaced thousands of people and killed at least 27.

Myanmar fire authorities sent a team to the dam after the breach unleashed water into the nearby town of Swar and several other settlements.

"The (spillway) of the dam was broken and flooded the two villages close to the highway," the fire department said on its Facebook page.

Authorities had given the dam the all-clear after an inspection just days earlier, despite residents' concerns about overspill, state-run media said.

"If you go to my house, there are no belongings left," said farmer Aung Aung, whose village of Kone Gyi Lan Sone was inundated without warning, sending him scrambling to tell his neighbours. They all ran to higher ground to escape.

"It was only after that we realised the situation," he told Reuters. "The little shop over there is completely destroyed and washed away," he added, as floodwaters and broken branches swirled around the wooden homes in the village.

Many people, including some not directly hit by flooding, had decided to leave their homes for fear the waters could rise further, said an official of the Natural Disaster Management Department who sought anonymity, in the absence of authorisation to speak to media.

As many as 14 clusters of hamlets were battling flooding, the department said.

In all, 12,000 households, or a total of 54,000 people, were displaced, said another official, from the Department of Relief and Resettlement, who also declined to be named.

A surge of water as high as 2.4 metres hit the first downstream village of Kyun Taw Su, besides flooding Swar and part of the larger town of Yedashe, said Ko Lwin, a journalist based in Swar.

A Yedashe administrative official said authorities could not rule out that people were still trapped in small villages near the dam, adding that of three people reported missing and feared swept away by the waters, one was found alive.

"The two other people are still missing," said the official, Aye Myin Kyi. "We don't assume them dead, we are still looking for them."

About 7,000 people were staying in 17 camps in the town, she added, while 16 more held 3,500 people in Taungoo, the nearest major town, with still more in monasteries and elsewhere.

Pictures on social media showed soldiers using makeshift bamboo rafts and kayaks to evacuate people from flooded homes and shops, some carrying children and the elderly through knee-deep waters.

The waters had begun to subside on Wednesday afternoon but still rushed beneath a damaged bridge along the road linking Myanmar's major cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyitaw surrounded by acres of flooded fields.

The bridge stayed closed to heavy traffic as the carriageway for vehicles travelling north to south had buckled.

"When the water flooded the bridge we closed it, and by the time we arrived here around 8 a.m., two columns had sunk around two feet," said Deputy Minister of Construction Kyaw Linn, who joined in repair work by surveyors and workers.

Myanmar's heavy annual monsoon rains have caused widespread flooding that displaced more than 100,000 people and killed at least 11 in July.

Some dams were reported to be overflowing this month, but an irrigation and water management official told the privately-run Myanmar Times newspaper there was no risk of a collapse.

The dam built across the Swar creek in 2004 can hold 216,350 acre-feet of water to irrigate more than 8,100 hectares of farmland, says a Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation document posted online.

Swar residents had expressed concerns that the dam was overflowing, said Ko Lwin, the journalist.

On Monday, the state-run Myanmar Alin newspaper said an administrator and an irrigation official had inspected the dam.

"There is nothing to be concerned about," it reported the administrator, Tun Nay Aung, as saying, as the dam had not exceeded its capacity.

Reuters was unable to trace contact details for Tun Nay Aung on Wednesday. Government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer telephone calls from Reuters to seek comment regarding the prior concerns over the dam.

The Myanmar government is assessing some dam projects to help eliminate chronic power shortages, but their potential environmental impact makes the projects controversial.

Large areas were still cut off by the floods, said Aye Aye, 47, one of the relief providers in the Swar area.

"I don't know about all the people," she added. "But there were quite a lot of dogs. Motorcycles were also underwater. (We saw) dead buffaloes, dead cows."</s>More than 50,000 people evacuated their homes in central Myanmar on Wednesday after a dam breach flooded towns and villages and caused the closure of a major highway, two officials said.

YANGON: More than 50,000 people evacuated their homes in central Myanmar on Wednesday after a dam breach flooded towns and villages and caused the closure of a major highway, two officials said.

Fire authorities sent a team to the Swar irrigation dam after the breach at 5:30 a.m. (2300 GMT) unleashed water into the nearby town of Swar and several other settlements.

Many people, including some not directly hit by flooding, had decided to leave their homes for fear the water level could rise further, said an official of the Natural Disaster Management Department who asked not to be identified, in the absence of authorisation to speak to media.

In all, 12,000 households or a total of 54,000 people had been displaced, said another official, from the Department of Relief and Resettlement, who also declined to be named.</s>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, Reuters reported. Firefighters, troops and officials launched a 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. By Thursday morning the water was receding, but two people remained missing and were feared to have been washed away, according to Min Thu, deputy administrator of Yedashe. “People whose villages are on higher ground are preparing to go back to their villages,” he said. Traffic between Myanmar’s major cities of Yangon and Mandalay and the capital, Naypyidaw, was disrupted after the flooding damaged a bridge on the highway linking the cities.</s>Damaged walls are seen after a dam burst at Swar creek

A flooded area after a dam breach is seen near Swar township

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.

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.</s>The incident at the Swar dam is the fourth major dam failure in recent months.

Monsoon rains have caused a dam in Myanmar to overflow, inundating the nearby township of Swar and surrounding villages in Bago region.At least 50,000 people are thought to have evacuated their homes after the Swar irrigation dam was breached during the early hours of 29 August, 2018, according to Reuters.Images on social media show teams from fire services and military helping to evacuate people from flooded areas. Myanmar Fire Service said they were using boats to carry out search and rescue operations. Some unconfirmed reports suggested that there have been some fatalities.Parts of Laos were badly affected in July this year when heavy rainfall caused the collapse of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam under construction in Sanamxay District of Attapeu province, that left at least 35 dead and many more still missing.In Colombia, the government in Antioquia department, Colombia, declared a Public Calamity after the Hidroituango Dam on the Cauca river threatened to collapse. On 12 May, a sudden release of water from the dam flooded municipalities of Puerto Valdivia and Taraza down stream, forcing around 600 people to evacuate their homes. By 23 May, further evacuations had been carried out in Puerto Valdivia and the municipalities of Puerto Antioquia, Cáceres and Tarazá, with the total number disaplced at around 25,000.In Kenya, the Patel Dam in Solai, Subukia Sub-County, Nakuru County , broke its banks on 09 May, 2018, killing at least 38 people.</s>Floodwaters are washing over residential areas in Myanmar's Bago region, driving thousands of people from their homes after a dam failed.

According to Reuters, officials say more than 50,000 people have had to flee.

Authorities fear that thousands of people may still be trapped in their homes, Agence France-Presse reported. Rescuers are working "into the night to try to ferry residents out."

"The (spillway) of the dam was broken and flooded the two villages close to the highway," the fire department said, according to Reuters.

Photos from the area show residents wading through murky water, carrying babies and helping to steady elderly evacuees. According to the local news site Frontier Myanmar, the fire department said that in some areas, the floodwater is 3 feet deep. It added that rescue workers say the levels have receded somewhat, but they're concerned about the possibility of more rain.

"If you go to my house, there are no belongings left," farmer Aung Aung told Reuters. His village, Kone Gyi Lan Sone, has flooded.

After fleeing to higher ground, he says he realized the extent of the damage. "The little shop over there is completely destroyed and washed away," he told the wire service.

Officials are also surveying a major bridge that was damaged by the floodwaters. The concrete bridge appears to have cracked and is sagging in multiple places, above a fast-rushing river. The bridge connects two of the country's largest cities, according to AFP.

Deputy Minister for Construction Kyaw Linn told AFP that he's concerned about how the flood may have affected the supporting towers of the bridge. "We will get divers to go down and check after the water levels recede," he said.

It's not clear what, precisely, caused the dam to fail, though the area has been experiencing heavy rain. Reuters, citing state media, said local officials had inspected the dam a few days ago and said it was in good condition. "There is nothing to be concerned about," administrator Tun Nay Aung is quoted as saying.

This isn't the first recent flood for the country. "The deluge comes just weeks after heavy monsoon rains pummelled Myanmar, causing widespread flash floods that forced some 150,000 people to flee their homes," AFP reported.

Last month, flooding in nearby Laos also caused a dam to fail, killing at least 27 people, as NPR's Bill Chappell reported. That flooding later spread to Cambodia, forcing 25,000 more people to flee in an area more than 40 miles away from the dam.</s>More than 50,000 people evacuated their homes in central Myanmar on Wednesday after a dam breach flooded towns and villages and caused the closure of a major highway, two officials said.

Fire authorities sent a team to the Swar irrigation dam after the breach at 5:30 a.m. (2300 GMT) unleashed water into the nearby town of Swar and several other settlements.

Many people, including some not directly hit by flooding, had decided to leave their homes for fear the water level could rise further, said an official of the Natural Disaster Management Department who asked not to be identified, in the absence of authorisation to speak to media.

In all, 12,000 households or a total of 54,000 people had been displaced, said another official, from the Department of Relief and Resettlement, who also declined to be named.</s>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 neighbouring 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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.”
The Swar Chaung dam bursts in Yedashe Township, Bago Region, Myanmar, flooding around a hundred villages and forcing roughly 50,000 people to flee their homes. One person is missing and the country's main highway is flooded.