On the afternoon of May 16, the Office of the National Civil Defense Steering Committee issued an urgent dispatch on responding to landslides that occurred at the Ta Pao Ho 1A hydropower plant, in Si Lo Lau commune, Phong Tho district, Lai Chau province, burying many people.
Accordingly, the National Civil Defense Steering Committee requested the Lai Chau Provincial Civil Defense, Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue Command to advise Party committees and authorities; coordinate with Military Region 2 and Border Guard to strictly maintain the on-duty regime; urgently deploy search and rescue work.
According to Lao Dong, the unfortunate incident occurred at around 10:30 a.m. on May 16.
Initial information, during the construction process, the contractor (Dung Phuc Loc Construction Investment Joint Stock Company headquartered in Nghe An) hired a number of local workers.
On the morning of May 16, while clearing the foundation hole under the hydroelectric dam, the negative slope of the road was eroded, with rocks and soil flowing down, burying many people.
At least 5 people were confirmed dead, 3 injured people have now been taken to the emergency room. Search and rescue work is still being urgently carried out.
According to the reporter's research, the Ta Pao Ho 1A & 1B Hydropower Project cluster is adjacent steps, in which Ta Pao Ho 1A Hydropower Plant is upstream, Ta Pao Ho 1B Hydropower Plant is downstream.
The project cluster is about 90km from the center of Lai Chau city, exploiting water resources in the Ta Pao Ho stream basin in Si Lo Lau and Mo Si San communes, Phong Tho district, Lai Chau province.
The Ta Pao Ho 1A Hydropower Project exploits a approach road including 1 main dam to raise water and 3 auxiliary dams to collect water, the total length of the water pipeline tunnels is 4.2km, of which the main pressure tunnel is about 2km long, with a water pole calculated at 281.71m, the plant uses 2 vertical turbines, with an installed capacity of 13.5MW.
The Ta Pao Ho 1A and Ta Pao Ho 1B hydropower projects have a capacity of 24MW, with a total investment of 911 billion VND, and are 2 of 8 hydropower projects invested by Kosy Group in Lai Chau and Dien Bien provinces.
