Hundreds of Workers Flee in Terror! China-Built Dam Project Collapses in Pakistan, BRI Under Fire

Another scandal has hit an overseas project under the Chinese Communist Party's Belt and Road Initiative. Rock suddenly collapsed at the Chinese-built fifth extension of Pakistan's Tarbela Dam, known as T5, on November 9, 2026. Floodwater immediately rushed into the tunnel and powerhouse. An earlier cofferdam collapse at the project had been linked to unauthorized design changes. A Pakistani government investigation explicitly assigned responsibility to the Chinese contractor. consultants and the project owner. Video circulating online shows a temporary protective earth embankment and a section of rock suddenly collapsing at the construction site. River water poured into Tunnel 5 and the powerhouse under construction, forcing hundreds of Chinese and Pakistani workers to evacuate. Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported on November 9th that the incident occurred during excavation of the second bench in the T5 project's connecting tunnel weak rock suddenly collapsed allowing water from the intake pit to rush into the tunnel and unfinished powerhouse the site entered a state of emergency Local authorities said a Pakistani worker was rescued after being swept away by the current. Pakistan's Water and Power Development Authority, or WAPDA, said everyone had been safely evacuated, with no deaths or injuries. It said the main tunnel and the powerhouse's main structure had shown no damage so far. Just a month earlier, Sinohydro Bureau 7, a subsidiary of Power China, had been widely promoting major progress on the project. Sinohydro Bureau 7 announced on October 9 that crews had broken through the connecting tunnel on October 6. It said the team had overcome complex geology and reservoir seepage risks by analyzing the stability of surrounding rock, forecasting geological conditions ahead of excavation, and monitoring the entire process. In late October, Power China issued another statement emphasizing strict implementation of water safety measures. A month later, rock collapsed and water flooded the same area. A protective embankment had already collapsed in August 2025, allowing accumulated water to flood the site and forcing workers to stop construction. Pakistan's government then established an independent inquiry committee. Don published details from its 15-page investigation report in July 2026. The official investigation identified unauthorized design decisions, failures by engineering consultants, and inadequate oversight by the project owner. It found that the collapse was more than a construction accident caused by a natural disaster. The Tarbela T5 project is a major Pakistani energy development, designed to add 1,530 megawatts of generating capacity. It is backed by substantial loans from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Power China is responsible for civil construction, while a consortium of Chinese companies, including Harbin Electric, is handling the electrical and mechanical work for the planned expansion. Costs, however, have already spiraled out of control. The budget approved in 2017 was about 82 billion Pakistani rupees. By 2026, it had soared to roughly 317 billion rupees, an increase of 285 percent. Completion, originally scheduled for 2026, has also been pushed back to the end of June, 2028. Pakistan has long struggled with electricity shortages. Data from the World Bank and Pakistan's energy authorities show that the power shortfall has frequently exceeded 20 percent over the years, at times reaching a third of national demand. Several hours of daytime blackouts are routine in cities, with even longer outages in rural areas. This major project was supposed to ease those shortages. Instead, repeated accidents and runaway costs could leave Pakistan burdened with high electricity prices for years. Water levels in the Tarbela Reservoir have also had to remain low for extended periods so that construction on T5 can continue. That has directly reduced irrigation supplies to Pakistan's main farming regions downstream. The shortages have begun affecting winter wheat planting and food security, prompting public complaints about the impact on people's livelihoods. The repeated accidents have raised serious doubt about Belt and Road Project's ability to manage complex geological and water-related risks. Local authorities have now formed a high-level investigation team to determine whether the collapse resulted from unavoidable geological conditions in structural design and construction quality. The Tarbella project deserves scrutiny beyond the number of accidents. Key issues include how unauthorized designs received approval, why engineering consultants failed to provide technical oversight, and why its already enormous construction costs keep rising as delays continue. Another flagship overseas Belt and Road project has recently been engulfed in a major corruption scandal. Ecuador's landmark $2 billion hydroelectric plant has become a dangerous structure. While a former president has been sent to prison over the case, Ecuador's national court issued its first instance ruling on the Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric bribery case on August 28th, 2026. Former Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno and former Chinese Ambassador to Ecuador Tsai Ing-kuo were sentenced to five years in prison. Twenty of the case's 21 defendants were convicted. Moreno, age 73, was also banned from public office for life and ordered to repay the state three times the amount of his illicit gains. His wife, daughter, and two brothers received sentences ranging from two and a half to three years. Ecuador's Attorney General's Office accused Sinohydro of paying about $76.1 million to Ecuadorian officials and associated individuals through fake consulting contracts between 2009 and 2018. That amounted to roughly 4% of the project's total contract value. Since it began operating in 2016, the dam, which was handled entirely by Chinese companies, has been exposed locally as a shoddily built project. An earlier site inspection by Ecuadorian auditors found more than 17,600 structural cracks inside the dam, along with serious flaws in the original design and a threat from riverbed erosion. The massive project was intended to supply 25% of Ecuador's electricity, but it has never generated power at full capacity. It even faces the risk of dam failure and a shutdown at any time. China's overseas dam projects also frequently use Chinese steel, cement, and Chinese-made turbine generators. Ecuador's Coca-Cola Sinclair plant was said to have used about 59.5 million pounds of reinforcing steel. Defective reinforcing steel has also been a suspected cause of the structural cracks. The New York Times exposed poor construction quality and numerous cracks at the dam in 2018. China's government responded by accusing the paper of spreading falsehoods. A Washington Post article in January 2023 again described quality problems at the dam, drawing another rebuttal from China's state-run Xinhua News Agency. The ruling marked an extremely rare instance in which a Chinese-funded overseas Belt and Road project led to criminal convictions in the recipient country involving a former Chinese diplomat. The Ecuadorian judge emphasized in the written ruling that more than 300 pieces of documentary evidence, including cross-border money laundering records and contracts, had been cross-checked. The judge said the evidence clearly established that a Chinese company had colluded with foreign political leaders to pay bribes. Tsai Ing-kuo served as China's ambassador to Ecuador from February 2007 to January 2011. After leaving that post, he became Sinohydro's legal representative in Ecuador. Tsai returned to China after the case became public in 2016. Ecuador's national court issued its first instance ruling against him in his absence. Media reports say Ecuadorian judicial authorities have repeatedly used diplomatic channels to To request international legal assistance, and the extradition of several Chinese nationals, including Tsai. So far, China has not responded favorably. Questions have also been raised about China's failure to publicly initiate proceedings to hold Tsai Ing-kuo accountable. Coca Codo Sinclair was once promoted as a massive project exemplifying mutually beneficial cooperation. It is now caught in an unprecedented scandal Involving construction quality disputes, enormous bribery allegations, political corruption, and court rulings. Increasingly, the reality reveals another pattern. Huge loans, massive construction projects, long-term debt, quality disputes, and recurring cases of officials exploiting their power for private gain and corruption. Ecuador is only part of the picture. The Washington Post also identified problems at other Chinese overseas dam projects, including Pakistan's Neelam Jhelum plant and Uganda's Isimba and Karuma plants. Construction quality issues, including cracks in walls and tunnels, have repeatedly been raised. Cameroon's Lagdo Electric Dam, built with Chinese assistance years ago, now has cracks that are causing worsening leaks. Its flood control and power generation no longer meet design expectations. Construction defects and a lack of communication with downstream communities during water releases have also worsened flooding in Nigeria. Sure, yeah. Ethiopia's Gibe 3 hydroelectric plant has faced similar problems. Flood control that failed to meet project requirements has created tensions with neighboring Kenya downstream. Wang Weiluo, a Chinese engineering expert based in Germany, identified the underlying problem. He said Chinese hydropower companies taking on Belt and Road projects sometimes focus only on delivering results to China's government. They rarely consider a dam's social impact, its effect on people displaced by construction, or its impact on the environment and ecosystems. Those issues receive little attention. In China, entrenched and widespread corruption has left almost all construction projects with serious quality problems. A video of the mayor of Uganda's capital inspecting a Chinese-built drainage project has recently circulated online. It shows Kampala Mayor Ronald Balimwezo discovering unusually loose concrete around a pipe at a construction site. He could break it off and crush it with his bare hands. The mayor immediately challenged the construction quality and demanded that the defective sections be demolished and rebuilt. Reports say the incident occurred on September 19. Balimwezo was leading an inspection of a drainage project built by a Chinese company. During the visit, he noticed that concrete around some drainage pipes might not meet construction requirements. Visibly upset, Balimwezo threw the concrete to the ground and challenged Chinese engineering staff at the site about the construction quality. He questioned whether the structure could withstand the force of large volumes of runoff during heavy rain and whether the project could actually drain water as intended. He ordered the contractor to demolish and rebuild it. In the video, an engineering worker wearing a reflective China Railway construction vest responds to the mayor's concerns at the site. Local media outlet Nile Post reported on September 21st that the contractor had demolished and rebuilt the disputed sections. 18th Bureau Group is the contractor for the Salama Road work. Kampala City records show that the roughly five-mile road It's part of the Kampala City Roads project. It is funded by the African Development Bank and built by a Chinese contractor. Balimwezo himself has a background in civil engineering. Ugandan parliamentary records list his profession as engineer. His 2009 master's thesis in civil engineering at Makerere University was a comparative study of local and foreign construction firms' participation in aid-funded road construction projects in the country. The video later sparked extensive discussion on social media. It brought up issues of construction quality and infrastructure built overseas by Chinese companies. They questioned related Belt and Road projects. One person wrote, wherever the Communist Party goes, disaster begins. Another person said, what Mayor Balimwezo does not know is that this is how they built in China too, sometimes even worse. The most liked comment said, After ripping off subcontractors, investors, and material suppliers at home, China State Construction is now going overseas to rip off black Africans. They've taken the same tricks they used to fool people in China and made them even worse. They did not expect to run into an expert. China's economic slowdown, debt pressures, a crisis of credibility, and changes in the international environment are weakening the Belt and Road Initiative's sustainability. Many Belt and Road countries, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Zambia, have already weak economic foundations. High global interest rates, surging inflation, and falling local currencies have combined to push them into serious debt distress. Some projects have failed to deliver the expected economic benefits, making loans from China difficult to repay. That also exposes China to greater risks of bad debt and more debt restructuring negotiations. The collapse of the canopy at Serbia's Novi Sad railway station has revealed another crisis facing overseas Belt and Road projects. The disaster sparked nationwide protests, with people strongly condemning corruption and negligence in the project. Investigators found that the two Chinese companies had illegally diverted $116 million through funds through methods including false invoices. Chinese businesses pocketed $18.8 million, resulting in seriously substandard construction. Serbian prosecutors took legal action against several officials as investigations continued. Eleven officials were arrested, including former construction minister Tomislav Momirovic and former senior railway company executives. The disaster also triggered prolonged protests and political upheaval in Serbia. These cases of substandard overseas construction reflect systemic problems in key areas of Belt and Road projects, including material procurement, Construction management and inspections and oversight. Although the CCP repeatedly emphasizes its technical capabilities in its international publicity, frequent safety incidents expose clear gaps in oversight and damage the company's international reputations. A troubling feature of many built-in road projects is their highly closed operating model. Financing comes from Chinese policy banks, designs from Chinese institutions, construction from Chinese state-owned companies, and equipment from Chinese manufacturers. Coordination often relies on official channels. This model can easily leave projects without effective oversight or clear accountability. When projects begin, they're promoted as projects of the century, models of cooperation, and major achievements. When accidents occur, the response repeatedly involves blame-shifting, slow investigations, and lack of transparency. That raises fundamental questions about the source of these failures. First, political goals take precedent over professional standards. Many Belt and Road projects are deeply political from the planning stage. Beyond their commercial purpose, they're tasked with demonstrating national strength and the superiority of China's political system. When a project becomes a vehicle for political achievements, the size of the investment, the speed of construction starts, and the publicity often take priority. Risk assessments, environmental impacts, Technical reviews and the ability to operate over the long term can be pushed aside. Second, financing and construction contracts are closely tied together. Loans come from Chinese policy banks, designs from Chinese institutions, construction from Chinese state-owned companies, and equipment from Chinese manufacturers. The diplomatic apparatus handles coordination, while the propaganda apparatus shapes the message. This closed chain inherently lacks adequate oversight and checks and balances. Truly independent third-party reviews are often missing when it comes to a project's soundness, budget transparency, and construction quality. Ultimately, this goes beyond ordinary market competition. It resembles a large-scale, coordinated campaign directed by the state apparatus. When construction goes wrong, companies may not bear full responsibility. When a project fails, the recipient country must still repay the loans. When problems arise, local taxpayers and ordinary people ultimately pay the price. The risk of corruption is even more dangerous. If a small number of interest groups retain control over the approval, financing, construction, and oversight of a multi-billion dollar project, the enormous flow of money can itself become a breeding ground for corruption. Dr. Wang Weiluo, a water engineering expert living in Germany, Germany said China's Belt and Road projects are politically part of the CCP's global strategy. Their main aims are to export its ideology, promote the superiority of the socialist system, and advance the idea that the East is rising while the West declines. They also seek to build a community with a shared future for humanity and a new world order, while using debt and technology to bind smaller partners to China and establish its sphere of influence. Economically, he said, the initiative primarily preserves and expands the distorted industrial structure of the CCP. It exports China's excess production capacity, including reinforcing steel and cement, along with its skilled workforce, while seeking control over global infrastructure networks.