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. 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. “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. 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 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.