When the Water Came: After the Xe Pian Dam Collapse
In July 2018, an auxiliary dam of the Xe Pian–Xe Namnoy Hydropower Project collapsed in southern Laos, releasing floodwaters into Attapeu Province and overwhelming villages downstream. Reports at the time described homes, roads, bridges, farmland, and entire communities being swept away, with thousands displaced and several villages in Sanamxai District severely affected.
I was photographing in Don Khon when news of the disaster reached me. Within four days, I travelled to Attapeu, after preparing the documents required by Lao authorities to enter the affected area. What I found was not only a flood zone, but a landscape where village life had been erased almost overnight.
In Hin Lat, the main road had disappeared beneath sand and mud. Homes that once stood on both sides were gone. Survivors returned to search for belongings, while others waited in shelters at Sanamxai School and Tamoyot, carrying new identification cards where village names and family histories had been reduced to numbers.
The disaster did not end when the water receded. It continued in the faces of people waiting for missing relatives, in children learning to live inside tents, and in the silence of those standing before homes that no longer existed.
Attapeu, Laos - After the Xe Pian dam collapse, floodwater surged through the Xe River valley, tearing through bridges and crossings on its way downstream. Before reaching Tha Hin Lat - the first village hit by the disaster - the river had already become a force of destruction, carrying water, mud, and debris through the mountains toward communities with little time to escape.
Hin Lat Village, Attapeu, Laos - Villagers travel along what was once the main road through Hin Lat after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Before the disaster, homes stood on both sides of this road as it cut through the center of the village. After the flood, nearly 90 percent of the community was buried beneath sand and mud carried down by the water released from the dam. In some places, the deposits rose almost three meters high. As the water receded, survivors returned to search for whatever belongings remained beneath the mud.
Hin Lat Village, Attapeu, Laos - A survivor returns to search for belongings after the Xe Pian dam collapse swept away homes and property in Hin Lat. Before the disaster, the village had around 180 households. Fewer than 10 houses remained standing after the flood. Behind him, the village temple - one of the few permanent structures left - still stands, though more than 80 percent of it was damaged. For many residents, returning meant walking through mud and debris in the hope that something from their former lives had survived.
Sanamxai, Attapeu, Laos - Tension rises among survivors living in a temporary shelter at Sanamxai School after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Displaced families crowd the school corridors, waiting for information, assistance, and news of relatives still missing. In the days after the disaster, survival was not only a matter of food and shelter, but of uncertainty - who had survived, what had been lost, and whether there would be a home to return to.
Tamoyot Shelter, Attapeu, Laos - A displaced survivor from Hin Lat holds a child at the Tamoyot relief shelter after the Xe Pian dam collapse. For nearly 95 percent of the families here, there was no home left to return to. The flood had swept away houses, possessions, and the shape of village life, leaving survivors to rebuild daily routines inside a temporary camp.
Tamoyot Shelter, Attapeu, Laos - A displaced girl from Hin Lat washes her hair at the Tamoyot shelter after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Far from the village she once knew, daily routines continue in temporary spaces - bathing, eating, waiting, and trying to hold on to ordinary life after home has been swept away.
Sanamxai, Attapeu, Laos - An identification card hangs from the neck of a displaced villager at the Sanamxai School camp after the Xe Pian dam collapse. In the days after the disaster, people who had once been farmers, parents, neighbors, and members of a village were registered by numbers in a temporary shelter. The flood did not only take homes and belongings; it changed how people were seen - from villagers to survivors, from a community to a camp list.
Hin Lat Village, Attapeu, Laos - Nearly a week after the Xe Pian dam collapse, survivors from Hin Lat remained in shock and grief. Inside the shelter, the weight of the disaster was still visible in their faces - the loss of homes, relatives, belongings, and the life they had known before the water came.
Ban Hinlad, Laos - In the wreckage left behind by the Xe Pian dam disaster, villagers begin returning to search for whatever the floodwaters did not take. Among them is a monk from the village, walking through the remains of shattered homes and twisted corrugated metal. For residents of Ban Hinlad, the disaster swept away not only houses and possessions, but the physical shape of everyday life itself.
Attapeu, Laos - A villager walks along what was once the main road through her community after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Before the disaster, more than 180 homes stood on both sides of this road; now the village has been reduced to sand, mud, and debris. Most of the houses were swept away by the flood. The woman in the photograph lost four members of her family, with one still missing. This image was not staged - it was made in the silence that remained after the water had passed.
Hin Lat Village, Attapeu, Laos - A survivor stands before damaged homes in Hin Lat after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Scenes like this were visible throughout the village: houses torn open, walls broken, and debris left hanging from the structures that remained. What had once been a place of daily life became a landscape of loss, where families returned only to see how much the water had taken.
Attapeu, Laos - A survivor of the Xe Pian dam collapse stands in a state of shock and loss after the disaster. In her face is the weight of what many survivors carried in the days that followed - fear, displacement, uncertainty, and the sudden breaking of a life that had once been familiar.
Khok Kong Village, Attapeu, Laos - Shop owners stand inside their flooded store after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Khok Kong was one of seven villages damaged by the disaster, where water and mud entered homes, shops, and storage rooms, destroying goods and leaving families to recover what little could still be used. For small businesses like this, the flood swept away not only property, but the fragile economy that supported daily village life.
Sanamxai School Shelter, Attapeu, Laos - Survivors of the Xe Pian dam collapse sit in tense silence at the Sanamxai School shelter. Displaced from Hin Lat and nearby villages, families waited for news, aid, and any sign of what might come next. In the crowded shelter, the disaster was carried not only in the loss of homes, but in the faces of people forced to live with uncertainty.
Khok Kong Village, Attapeu, Laos - Survivors of the Xe Pian dam collapse return to clean what remains of their home in Khok Kong, one of seven villages affected by the disaster. In parts of the village, floodwater rose nearly three meters high, leaving rooms filled with mud, damaged furniture, and the residue of a life suddenly interrupted. What could be saved had to be carried out by hand.
Hin Lat Village, Attapeu, Laos - A survivor stands inside what remains of his home after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Mud, debris, and floodwater have torn through the structure, leaving only fragments of the life that once filled it. In the silence after the disaster, he looks at what survived - and at everything that did not.
Sanamxai, Attapeu, Laos - Survivors of the Xe Pian dam collapse move their belongings from overcrowded school buildings into newly supplied tents at the Sanamxai shelter. For displaced families, the tents offered more space, but not yet a return to home - only another temporary place to wait, recover, and begin again after the flood.
Sanamxai, Attapeu, Laos - A displaced girl carries donated supplies back to her family at the Sanamxai shelter after the Xe Pian dam collapse. Survivors had recently moved from overcrowded school buildings into newly supplied tents, carrying food, clothing, and household items across the camp. For families who had lost almost everything, each donated bundle became part of rebuilding life in temporary shelter.
Sanamxai, Attapeu, Laos - An injured survivor from a remote village is brought to the Sanamxai shelter after the Xe Pian dam collapse, with support from the Lao Air Force. In areas cut off by floodwater, mud, and damaged roads, evacuation often depended on military transport before patients could be transferred onward to hospital care.