Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- SK Engineering & Construction, a builder affiliated with South Korea's SK Group, has decided to make an official request for a reinvestigation into the cause of the 2018 collapse of an auxiliary dam in a hydroelectric power plant in Laos, refusing to accept findings by a panel of experts that alluded to poor construction.

The disaster occurred on July 23, 2018, when a saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project collapsed following heavy rains, unleashing powerful flash floods that inundated 12 villages and killed at least 40 people, leaving many more missing.

On Tuesday, the government of Laos confirmed findings by the International Expert Panel (IEP), which said that the construction of the saddle dam was "substandard" and the collapse was caused by soil used in place of concrete. SK E&C refused to accept IEP's findings, insisting they were "merely empirical reasoning" and lacked scientific and engineering grounds.

SK E&C officials said they would ask for a reinvestigation because controversy over determining the cause of the disaster is related to a huge amount of compensation for damages. "We understand that the insurance company is in the process of assessing the amount of compensation," an SK E&C official said.

SK E&C signed up for a $680 million comprehensive insurance under the name of PNPC, a joint investment venture created mainly by SK E&C, Korea Western Power, Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL of Thailand, and Lao Holding State Enterprise.

SK E&C's construction cost was estimated at $658 million, and only one of the four auxiliary dams was lost with two main dams undamaged. Insurance coverage may differ if SK E&C is responsible for poor construction or negligence.

SK E&C's operating profit fell 57 percent on-year to 86.7 billion won in 2018, reflecting losses in Laos. Worried about its international reputation, the builder wants intensive and additional verification to produce reliable results all experts can agree on, stressing that teams sent by the South Korean government and global engineering firms as observers had different opinions.

If IEP's findings are true, a large amount of soil leakage should have been found at the bottom of the dam before its collapse, SK E&C said, refuting claims that leaks had occurred along fine tubes in the red soil used to build the auxiliary dam, causing internal erosion and weakening the ground.

"The International Expert Panel (IEP) found that the major cause of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam collapse was the high-absorbency of the foundation of saddle dam D, coupled with soil being porous and easily eroded, and the level of rising water," Singpheth Bounsavathiphanh, vice chairman of the Government Inspection Authority and vice chairman of the Lao National Investigation Committee (NIC) told reporters in Vientiane.

"When the erosion reached a certain level, the dam became unstable and sliding began at the higher saddle dams. At some point, saddle dam D broke, causing a massive amount of water to flow out of the reservoir," Bounsavathiphanh said.