"IN A landmark victory for environmental law in Myanmar, three farmers in Tanintharyi Region have battled through the court system to persuade the Dawei District Court to order two mining companies to compensate them for the destruction of their betel palm plantations. The companies, Myanmar Pongpipat Company and Eastern Mining Company, operate mines in neighbouring valleys in the Tanintharyi ranges in Dawei Township, about an hour’s drive from the regional capital. Tin has been mined at the sites for decades but nearby communities only began to report negative impacts from mining after the two companies acquired and greatly expanded the mines. MPC entered an agreement with the government in 1999 and EMC began mining around 2011. In a judgment delivered on January 7 against MPC and two more on January 28 against EMC, the companies were asked to pay damages of up to K114,800,000 (US$82,536) for each claimant. This great success should be celebrated, but it raises the question of what the government has done to hold these companies to account. Mining inevitably produces waste, including sediment and liquid tailings, and mismanagement can be catastrophic for communities downstream. In Tanintharyi, livelihoods have been destroyed as thick layers of sediment, fouled with heavy metals and high levels of salts, have inundated farmland after heavy rain. In the two cases against EMC, a Thai mining expert said he had never seen such damage, in which creeks had disappeared under a pile of waste..."