The Political Ecology of Catastrophic Disasters Versus Slow Violence: Thinking about the Impacts of the Xe Pian Xe Nam N

On July 23, 2018, one of the Saddle Dams of the Xe Pian Xe Nam Noy Hydropower Project—the largest dam ever to be constructed in southern Laos—broke, sending up to five million cubic meters of water gushing into the Xe Pian River Basin and very rapidly inundating 13 villages, with six of those being totally destroyed. The human death toll from the disaster is 43, with another 28 people still missing. Over 7,000 people are facing long-term displacement....