A 50-meter breach in the 1958-era Liulan Reservoir dam raises alarm over core structural defects, and public warnings left unheeded.

By Probe International

Typhoon Maysak unleashed torrential rains across southern China this past weekend, triggering the collapse of sections of the 66-year-old Liulan Reservoir dam in Hengzhou, near Nanning in the Guangxi region. When floodwaters exceeded design capacity, inadequate discharge led to saturation and a 50-meter breach, endangering 170,000 downstream residents.

Despite claims of upgrades, sources assert that the core structure of the earthen dam, built in 1958, had become fragile due to minimal reinforcement. In the wake of the devastation, a report posted on the social media app WeChat—since deleted but preserved by China Digital Times—documents various issues alleged to have compromised the dam over time.

The deleted report asserts that an upgrade budget of 73.62 million yuan allocated to Liulan had largely targeted irrigation canals, pumping stations, and cosmetic fixes like turf replacement and road paving rather than the dam’s main body.

Although the Liulan Reservoir dam had undergone two rounds of specialized reinforcement over 17 years, the report contends piecemeal planning — tackling problems only as they arise — prevented the systematic strengthening of the genuinely vulnerable main dam. Long-term issues such as uneven compaction, seepage channels, severe termite damage, and soil loosening had also made the structure highly vulnerable.

According to the report, economic priorities over safety compounded the dam’s precariousness.

Online criticism following the dam breach connected a widespread contracted fish-farming model as a potential hidden factor behind delayed flood discharge. The multi-purpose model, adopted by many small and medium-sized reservoirs, combines fisheries with irrigation, and flood control; driven by profit motives. In previous flood seasons nationwide, fish farmers have been known to privately block discharge channels or refuse to open gates to protect their stocks.

The report also notes that concerns voiced by citizens a full year in advance of Maysak’s destruction went unheeded. In June 2025, a netizen video highlighted visible subsidence and cracking on a recently renovated road atop the dam, linking it to rainfall-induced backfill failure. Despite supposed 24-hour monitoring and daily inspections, authorities apparently ignored or superficially addressed these public alerts.

“Water conservancy projects are never ‘vanity projects’ that can be completed once and for all; they require spending money on the ‘substance’ that is not usually seen,” the report’s anonymous author writes, urging an investigation into the flow of funds allocated to the dam’s upgrade, along with the project’s acceptance process, and any dereliction of duty in routine inspections at the site.

Go to the China Digital Times website here to read the report in full.

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