At a Glance

A dam under construction in Colombia has caused big problems for thousands who live downstream.Mudslides caused plugged water-release tunnels, sending water levels up and leading to evacuations.Locals now worry daily about what could happen if additional mudslides compromise the dam's structural integrity.

A hydroelectric dam project in Colombia has nearly triggered a disaster during the construction phase thanks to a series of landslides that has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes downstream.

Located along the Cauca River, theHidroituango Dam is Colombia's largest hydroelectric dam project and was in the final stages of construction inApril when landslides , according to the Guardian. The dam, located about 110 miles north of Medellín, had its only remaining water-release tunnel blocked by the mudslide on April 28, and as water levels rose rapidly, thousands of downstream residents , BBC.com reported.

"I was in Puerto Valdivia when the first alarm sounded,"local residentTeresa Jaramillo told BBC.com. "It was very chaotic. No one knew whether to run for the hills or along the road, whether to grab the children or grab the elderly. Everyone was going crazy."

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The company building the dam,Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), chose to flood the turbine rooms on May 10 to keep a bigger disaster from happening, destroying the newly-installed transformers but sparing downstream towns from further disaster, BBC.com also reported. On May 12, one of the tunnels unblocked and sent floods into the towns.

Dozens of homes, a school and a health center were destroyed that day, the report added.

Reuters said the dam, which , is expected to generate 17 percent of Colombia's overall energy when complete. But with an elevated risk of landslides in nearby mountains, additional rainfall could create a disaster that causes irreversible harm to the dam, BBC.com added.

The result: some 24,000 people downstream are living with a daily unease – if they're allowed to return to their homes at all.

"Communities are losing their way of life," environmental activist Isabel Cristina Zuleta told the Guardian. "There’s no humanitarian assistance here, it’s total abandonment – there’s no shelters, no food, no anything."