The dam at a small reservoir in China's Guangxi region gave way last month after days of heavy rain in a collapse that could be a harbinger of sterner tests for many of the country's 94,000 aging dams as the weather gets more extreme.
Located in Yangshuo county, famed for its otherworldly karst landscape, the dam collapsed at around midday on June 7, inundating roads, orchards and fields in Shazixi village, residents said.
"I've never seen such flooding," said villager Luo Qiyuan, 81, who helped build the dam decades ago.