Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - The Dalongtan Hydropower Station currently under construction, located on the Qing River running in the Shi'en Prefecture of central China's Hubei Province, was flooded yesterday afternoon. 4 migrant workers, and a van with 12 children, as well as their teacher and driver, are still missing.
Ran, an official with a company investing and operating the project, affiliated to the Hubei Qingjiang Hydroelectric Development Co., Ltd, revealed to Interfax that a 45.7-m high provisional dam situated upstream of the hydropower project was damaged in the flood, which resulted in the tragedy.
"Flood warnings had been issued in advance, and no one was working at the site," the official explained. "However, the coffer dam, designed to safeguard areas downstream while the project was being built, collapsed, which was beyond anyone's expectations."
The flood water that ruined the coffer dam immediately flushed towards the hydropower project downstream, where four workers are now missing, and then reached a stretch of road close to the project where the van was driving.
"The accident is now being investigated, and the results have yet to be ascertained," Ran noted.
According to him, the collapsed dam was contracted to the China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC), the largest hydropower group in China, which is also responsible for building the Three Gorges Project.
Fang, a spokesman with the CGGC, told Interfax that so far, the CGGC unit in charge of the Dalongtan Hydropower Station has not been identified because there are too many subsidiaries within the group carrying out a large number of projects.
According to CGGC's website, as of this April, 176 projects were being run by the group, and the Dalongtan Hydropower Station was one of them.
Launched in October 2002, the hydropower station at Dalongtan, involving three 12,000 kW generating units only, was originally scheduled to be completed in June 2005, according to Ran. The official guessed that the construction would now be postponed.
