Governor orders probe after latest Ituango landslide

The government of Colombia's Antioquia department said Tuesday it will hire an independent team of experts to investigate the cause of the Ituango dam crisis.

The announcement follows a second landslide at the site of the US$4bn Hidroituango project in less than a month, which prompted the evacuation of hundreds of workers and sparked renewed fears of mass flooding.

"The government is going to hire a commission of experts to go to Hidroituango ... talk to contractors of the works to give an official verdict to the population," governor Luis Pérez Gutiérrez was quoted as saying by newspaper El Tiempo.

Pérez criticized project co-owner EPM for its handling of the issue, claiming that inconsistencies in its reports to the public suggested that "something strange is going on."

EPM has said there were no injuries as a result of Saturday's landslide. A transit tunnel was closed as a precautionary measure while technical experts evaluated damage, the multi-utility said in a statement.

More than 23,000 people have been evacuated from their homes since an initial landslide on April 28, which blocked a tunnel used to regulate water flow between the dam's spillway and the Cauca river in northwest Colombia.

The incident briefly caused the river to burst its banks, destroying bridges, medical centers, schools and dozens of houses. Around 600 people have been left homeless, newspaper El Espectador reported.

On Sunday, authorities said the communities of Puerto Valdivia, Puerto Antioquia and Cáceres remained on high alert of rising floodwaters.

Located around 170km northeast of Medellín, Hidroituango is Colombia's largest infrastructure project in investment terms.

The 2.4GW facility, a joint venture between EPM and Antioquia development agency Idea, is expected to supply over 17% of Colombia's electricity when fully operational in 2021. Local officials say work on the project is around 85% complete.

Officials have said the disaster will likely postpone the start of electricity generation at the plant, which had been slated for December.

Experts have forecast "brutal" damage to the plant's equipment after EPM was forced to release water into the dam's powerhouse to avoid "catastrophic" flooding.

EPM chief executive Jorge Londoño has guaranteed the company, which is controlled by the Medellín city government, will cooperate with authorities in their efforts to determine the cause of the emergency.

Prosecutors are also investigating claims that public servants received illicit payments in the project's contracting process.