13 Workers Die in Hydroelectric Plant Construction Project

Out of Ecuador is a report of a construction accident at a site for the new hydroelectric plant Coca Codo Sinclair.

Collapse Kills 13, Injures 12 In Chinese Hydroelectric Plant In Ecuador
QUITO, Dec 15 (BERNAMA-NNN-XINHUA) -- A tunnel collapse in a Chinese hydroelectric plant in Ecuador's Amazonian region Saturday night killed 13 workers, including three Chinese and 10 Ecuadorians, and injured another 12.

I do not work in the construction industry. I imagine the risks of construction and excavation on the level of a hydroelectric plant must be high.  But, I also imagine that there must be rigorous safety procedures.  The reports I could find so far do not detail the root causes of the incident.

BERNAMA-NNN-XINHUA reports that:

According to the National Risk Management Ministry, the accident was caused by a "collapse in a tunnel" that affected the high-pressure pipes inside the engine room.

Univision:

Ecuador's public radio said there had been a breakdown in a tunnel of the engine room of the plant and that the wounded were being treated at a hospital in the town of El Chaco, Napo.
"We are evaluating what's happened. It's a problem we're having in one of the penstocks," he told the AFP chief technical control of the project, Dennis Salgado.
He said that the accident occurred "in the area of ​​vertical well pipe pressure", which faces the underground powerhouse of hydropower.

The project is huge (Univision):

Coca Codo Sinclair, a work which cost about 2.245 million dollars will start operating in February 2016 and will generate 1,500 megawatts, 36% of the energy currently consumed Ecuador.The works are part of a network of eight hydroelectric construction with which Ecuador, an oil country, expected to stop importing electricity and become an exporter of clean energy.

This accident was not the only loss of life incident at the site(Univision):

Last April, four Chinese were killed in an explosion in the works of other hydroelectric being built in southern Ecuador, also funded by Beijing.
The victims were four technical explosives who perished during the expansion of an underground pit of Sopladora center, built by the China Gezhouba, as Tito Torres, business manager Hidropaute, the state company that manages the building.

The Chinese Link

I am interested by the link between China and the U.S. in this economic cycle. Here is a story about Chinese migrant worker Dong Bo:

But as with many of China's 130 million migrant workers, the grim realities of the global economy weigh heavily in Dong's heart. For the first time since leaving home seven years ago, the 25-year-old does not have a job waiting for him after the weeklong festival ends.

Dong and many others like him plan to go back to coastal cities that for three decades have been churning out goods for American consumers and improving the living standard of China's peasant farmers. But with the Chinese economy in the throes of its worst industrial decline in years, analysts say, there won't be enough jobs to satisfy the crush of returning workers -- raising the specter of more social turmoil and, for those staying in villages, conflicts over land and farming rights.

Dong was laid off from an electronics factory in southeastern Guangdong province, one of countless plants in China suffering from a drop-off in orders from the U.S. and Europe.