Description:
Summary: "A recently built dam on the Longjiang (Nam Mao or Shweli) river in Yunnan Province of China has severely disrupted the
livelihoods of about 16,000 villagers living in the Mao Valley along the northern Shan State border in Burma.
The Ruili-Muse border crossing, in the Mao Valley, is the main border trade point between China and Burma, and local
communiti es rely principally on income from ferrying goods across the river on either side of the crossing. However, in early
2010, when the reservoir in the Longjiang Dam started to be fi lled, the river dried up, falling to unprecedented low levels
and bringing boats to a standsti ll. Since the start of the rains in May 2010, there have been huge daily fl uctuati ons in the river
levels, causing not only grounding of boats, but also fl ooding of goods, cutti ng ferry workers? incomes by up to two-thirds.
The numerous ferry operators have thus had to drasti cally reduce the numbers of their trips. The resulti ng drop in trade is
not only cutti ng the income of the riverside communiti es, but also that of many of the 30,000 people living in the town of
Muse, who rely on the border trade.
These communiti es were never informed by either Chinese or Burmese authoriti es about the dam and its impacts. They
are urgently requesti ng the Chinese authoriti es to modify the dam?s operati on so that the river?s environmental fl ow can be
restored, and the disrupti on to their livelihoods minimized.
This case study provides evidence that builders of hydropower dams on transnati onal rivers in China have neglected to
consider the trans-boundary environmental and social impacts of these projects. There is an urgent need for transparent,
comprehensive and parti cipatory assessments of the environmental and social impacts of these projects on the enti re
length of the rivers."
Source/publisher:
Shan Women?s Action Network (SWAN)
Date of Publication:
2010-00-00
Date of entry:
2016-01-31
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
Shan (ရှမ်းဘာသာ)
Local URL:
Format:
pdf pdf
Size:
2.9 MB 3.6 MB