Associated Press
October 5, 2001

Heavy rains caused a dam to collapse in southwest China, unleashing waters from a reservoir that killed 12 people and left 13 missing, according to Xinhua News Agency. The news agency said 12 others were injured by the collapse on Wednesday of the Dalugou dam in Sichuan province’s Huili county, 2,000km southwest of Beijing. Xinhua said 8cm of rain fell on Huili between Tuesday and Wednesday. It described the dam that collapsed as small, but gave no further details. China is building the world’s biggest hydroelectric dam on the Yangtze River. Thousands of smaller dams, some poorly constructed and maintained, are dotted throughout the country, often for irrigation and water supplies in rural areas.