Dams and other projects on the Irrawaddy and its tributories

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Description: 92,100 results (May 2011)
Source/publisher: Google.com
Date of entry/update: 2011-05-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: This dossier contains the full text of the environmental impact assesment (EIA) done by Chinese and Burmese experts and published in October 2009. The title is: "ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (SPECIAL INVESTIGATION) ON HYDROPOWER DEVELOPMENT OF AYEYAWADY RIVER BASIN ABOVE MYITKYINA, KACHIN STATE, MYANMAR". The dossier also contains links to other documents on the project including the EIA commissioned by the CHINA POWER INVESTMENT CORPORATION (CPI).
Source/publisher: Biodiversity And Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and other sources
2009-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-08-12
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 109.36 KB
Local URL: PDF icon EIA-dossier.pdf
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Description: "The Irrawaddy River flows from north to south through the center of Burma. Since 2005, Burma?s military junta in partnership with the China Power Investment Corporation have been preparing plans to build a 3,600 - 6,000 megawatt Irrawaddy Myitsone dam on the river. China Gezhouba is the main dam builder. Located a mile below the confluence of the Mali and N?Mai Rivers in Kachin State, the source of the Irrawaddy River, the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam is the largest of seven dams now proposed for these three rivers. If built, the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam would create a reservoir the size of New York City and displace 10,000 people, mostly from the Kachin ethnic group. The dam will also submerge historical churches, temples, and cultural heritage sites that are central to Kachin identity and history. The dam site is located within the Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rainforest region, which is recognized as one of the world?s top biodiversity hotspots and a global conservation priority. If built, the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam would inundate approximately 766 square kilometers of this pristine rainforest and cause irreversible damage to its river systems. The dam would also disrupt transportation of nutrients to the Irrawaddy?s delta, which provides nearly 60 percent of Burma?s rice. Local communities oppose the dam not just because of its environmental impacts, displacement, and threats to cultural sites, but also because the dam is located less than 100 kilometers from a major fault line, posing a risk to basin inhabitants should an earthquake weaken the dam structure or cause landslides in the reservoir. If the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam were to break during an earthquake, it would endanger the lives of hundred of thousands of people by flooding Kachin State?s largest city, Myikyina. In May 2007, twelve respected leaders from Kachin State sent a letter at the request of local communities to Senior General Than Shwe and the junta?s Ministry of Electric Power calling for the project to be cancelled. In December 2007, the Burma Rivers Network also sent a letter to the Chinese government calling on Chinese companies operating in Burma to conduct environmental and social impact assessments, publicly release information, and include affected communities in the decision-making process. Neither letter has yet received a response. In Burma, the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) is working to protect the Irrawaddy River and its communities in Kachin State. International Rivers is working to support local groups? efforts against the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam and is also challenging CSG?s involvement in dams in Burma..."
Source/publisher: International Rivers
Date of entry/update: 2011-08-18
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Description: Burma?s military government signed an agreement with China Power Investment Corporation in May 2007 for the implementation of seven large dams along the Irrawaddy, Mali, and N?Mai Rivers in Kachin State. The largest of the seven, the Myitsone Dam, is located at the confluence of the Mali and N?Mai Rivers at the creation of the Irrawaddy. The dam would destroy the confluence, one of the most significant cultural heritage sites for the Kachin people and an important landmark for all of Burma.
Source/publisher: Burma Rivers Network
Date of entry/update: 2010-09-20
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The Myitsone Dam (Burmese: မွဈဆုံ တာတမံ [mjɪʔsʰòʊɴ tàtəmàɴ]; lit. the Confluence Dam) is a large dam and hydroelectric power development project at the confluence of the Mali and N?mai rivers and the source of the Irawaddy River (Ayeyawady River) in Burma (Myanmar). If completed as planned in 2017, it will be the fifteenth largest hydroelectric power station in the world. The dam, planned to be 1,310 metres (4,300 ft) long and 139.6 metres (458 ft) high, to be built by the Upstream Ayeyawady Confluence Basin Hydropower Company, a joint venture between the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), the Burmese Government?s Ministry of Electric Power and the Asia World Company. It is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity primarily for Yunnan, China. CPI contended that China would not be the electricity?s primary market and stated that Myanmar would have first claim on the electricity generated, with the remainder sold for export. Opponents remained skeptical because most Burmese are not connected to the electrical grid, and doubted whether the dam would improve their livelihood.
Source/publisher: Wikipedia
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-04
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The Ayeyarwady River is nutrients for our fertile farms, fish for every meal, transport for our many boats and protection from rising sea levels. But our actions are having major impacts, and the consequences could be catastrophic......DANGEROUS FISHING TECHNIQUES...SANDMINING FOR SEDIMENT...HYDROPOWER DAMS...THE GOOD NEWS...A TOURISM LIFELINE FOR DOLPHINS...AN INVALUABLE AYEYARWADY...RENEWABLE ALTERNATIVES TO HYDROPOWER..."
Source/publisher: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
1970-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2018-12-27
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Sub-title: How national security concerns sealed the varying fates of Chinese investment projects in Myanmar.
Description: "Almost nine years have passed since the Thein Sein administration unilaterally announced the suspension of construction work on the Myitsone dam in September 2011. The building of the controversial hydroelectric dam is a gargantuan Chinese investment project in Myanmar, with an estimated total cost of $3.6 billion, and with a planned reservoir area larger than the size of Singapore. The suspension followed increasingly severe public protests in Myanmar expressing opposition to the Myitsone dam project. Naypyidaw credited the suspension decision to the “people’s will, and many analysts have thus attributed the unexpected suspension to the victory of popular anti-China sentiments and anti-dam movements, following Myanmar’s domestic political transition. If the “people’s will” really brought the Myitsone dam project to a halt, might other Chinese overseas projects be at risk of a similar fate? The dam project was not the only Chinese mega-project undergoing construction in Myanmar at that time. Two other multi-billion-dollar projects, namely, the Letpadaung copper mine project and the Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines project, also encountered severe public opposition and pressure when Myanmar started its partial transition from military dictatorship to quasi-civilian semi-democracy. Although the three projects have similarities in terms of their design, implementation, and the public backlash they faced, the setbacks they experienced varied greatly. Since the Myitsone dam project was unilaterally suspended by former President Thein Sein, the construction work remains shelved without any renegotiation. In contrast, the Letpadaung copper mine project experienced a two-year suspension, investigation, and renegotiation before it resumed, while the Sino-Myanmar oil and gas pipelines project was never suspended and has been operational since the completion of construction work in 2015. To understand why these projects encountered varying degrees of success, it is necessary to take into account the contexts of the three consecutive Myanmar governments within which these projects were operational: the military government before the political transition in March 2011, the quasi-civilian government of Thein Sein from March 2011 to March 2016, and the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government since then. Doing so reveals that the “people’s will” was not the primary reason why Thein Sein unilaterally suspended the Myitsone dam project. Rather, national security concerns led Myanmar’s leaders to make different decisions on similar projects under different contexts. The plans for all three projects were finalized between 2009 and 2010, when Myanmar was still ruled by the military junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Myanmar had experienced Western sanctions and isolation during the era of military dictatorship. China not only was Myanmar’s largest trading partner and foreign investor, but also became its biggest regime supporter in the international community at this time. The maintenance of a good relationship with China was one of the main priorities for Myanmar’s leadership, to ensure regime survival and national security. Thus, Myanmar satisfied China’s demands in this period because the cost of rejecting China was intolerable..."
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Source/publisher: "The Diplomat" (Japan)
2020-07-22
Date of entry/update: 2020-07-22
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Description: "Myanmar is caught between a rock and a hard place. As the government seeks to pick up the pace of development, electrical power is needed and hydropower is touted as an “environmentally-friendly” solution in order to switch on the lights. But there are a number of problems with how this process is being handled and the negative effects that big dams typically could have on the country’s rivers and water supply. DAM BUILDERS VS DAM BUSTERS Dam builders face dam busters when it comes to the pros and cons of dams as a way to harness the power of Mother Nature. Hydropower and dams are touted by people in the industry as an answer to power and also a way to control rivers that tend to flood. Yet the standoff over the Chinese-run $3.6 billion Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State alerts us to the public opposition to the building of dams – and in this particular case, the questions over who was going to get most of the power, given the original plan to send most of the electricity to China, while Myanmar is thirsty for electricity. Interestingly, the Myitsone Dam was not mentioned publicly during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent state visit to Myanmar. A raft of close to three dozen development projects mostly linked to Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative were signed. But the Myitsone Dam was noticeable by its absence from the list, despite Xi being the main Chinese official, in his role as Vice President, to push for the signing of the deal back in 2009..."
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Source/publisher: "Mizzima" (Myanmar)
2020-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-08
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Sub-title: Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam of Banmaw in Kachin State and Myanmar’s Catholic Church leaders are opposed to the revival of the stalled Myitsone dam project in Kachin state
Description: "A Myanmar Church official has expressed anxiety over the restarting of the China-backed Myitsone dam project on the Irrawaddy River in the conflict-torn northern state of Kachin. The concerns grew with the historic state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Myanmar, January 17-18. This is Xi's first visit to China’s southern neighbour and the first visit of any Chinese president in 19 years. Bishop Raymond Sumlut Gam of Banmaw in Kachin State has expressed concerns over the revival of the controversial Myitsone mega-dam project with this visit. “The Church’s stance is on the dam’s impact on both the environment and on the people,” Bishop Gam told UCA News. He said Myanmar and China leaders might talk about restarting the project, suspended in 2017. However, China may not further push for the project’s revival as it is likely to face strong opposition from the people, affecting other development projects. “We are awaiting the answers on the fate of Myitsone with bated breath,” he said. More than 40 Kachin organizations have called on Xi to permanently cancel the Myitsone Dam project..."
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Source/publisher: "Vatican News"
2020-01-19
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Myitsone dam, Belt and Road Initiative, Aung San Suu Kyi, Xi Jinping, Kachin, Myanmar, China
Topic: Myitsone dam, Belt and Road Initiative, Aung San Suu Kyi, Xi Jinping, Kachin, Myanmar, China
Description: "Myanmar leader, Aung San Suu Kyi made a rare trip to a region bordering China days before President Xi Jinping is expected to push for controversial port and dam projects during a visit to the country. Wearing traditional ethnic attire, Suu Kyi danced with a street procession on Friday in northern Kachin state's capital Myitkyina, a day after supporters cheered her arrival at the airport. She urged a crowd of thousands to "focus on the present" and called for peace in the remote region, where insurgents have clashed with the army over autonomy and resources. She did not mention the China-backed Myitsone dam, a US$3.6 billion project halted in 2011 in the face of widespread opposition. A proposal to reinstate the dam drew thousands of protesters onto the streets last year. Myanmar is a vital piece of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi's US$1 trillion vision for maritime, rail and road projects across Asia, Africa and Europe. During his two-day visit to the country starting 17 January, Xi and top Myanmar political and military leaders are expected to discuss the initiative, according to a Friday briefing by China's Vice Foreign Minister, Luo Zhaohui..."
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post" (Malaysia)
2020-01-11
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-11
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Description: "Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Myanmar late next week to discuss bilateral relations and to push for the speedier buildout of Chinese development projects under his massive Belt and Road Initiative, Myanmar analysts said Wednesday. Neither the Myanmar nor Chinese government has released details of his Jan. 17-18 trip — Xi’s first visit to the Southeast Asian country since 2009 — on the occasion of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries. Myanmar analysts say Xi’s trip could bode well for the country’s faltering peace process and economic growth. Beijing has encouraged rebel ethnic armies fighting Myanmar troops in border areas to meet with peace negotiators and agree to bilateral cease-fires with the government military. China’s primary motive for getting involved in the peace process is driven by its interest in securing border areas so that infrastructure investments in Myanmar under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are not jeopardized, analysts believe..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
2020-01-08
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-09
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Sub-title: Andaman Sea, Belt and Road initiative, Bhamo, BRI, China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, China-Myanmar Irrawaddy Economic Belt, Chinese President Xi Jinping, CMEC, Indian Ocean, Irrawaddy Delta, Kachin State, Kunming, Lio Je customs gate, Longchuan, Mandalay, Muse, Ruili, the Irrawaddy River, Yangon, Yunnan, Zhangfeng
Description: "Chinese think tanks based in Yunnan have been traveling back and forth between Yangon and the Chinese province’s capital, Kunming, since early 2018. But at times their itinerary has taken them beyondMyanmar’s economic hub. They have traveled hundreds of miles conducting field investigations up and down the Irrawaddy River, from the north to the south of Myanmar, with high hopes of turning Myanmar’s lifeline into a vital trade and logistics link with China. The strategic land and water transport route is expected to start in Kunming and run through Longchuan in Yunnan province to Bhamo in Kachin State, then to Yangon and the Indian Ocean. Developing the 2,161-km route from Kunming to Yangon could cost around 3.3 billion Chinese renminbi (700 billion kyats). The Irrawaddy is the country’s most important waterway, flowing into the Andaman Sea through the Irrawaddy Delta..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2019-12-30
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-07
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Description: "Upper House MP J Yaw Wu from the National Unity Party representing Kachin State Consitiuency-1revealed he refused to accept the bribe from the Chinese Power Investment (CPI) Compnay in order to keep silent about the Myitsone Dam Project, at a press conference at Real Link Hotel in Yankin Township in Yangon on January 26. On September 23, 2011, MP J Yaw Wu remonstrated against the Myitsone Dam project as a MP from the constituency-12 in Kachin State in the time of the Thein Sein Administration. He sent the remonstration letter to former President Thein Sein via Upper House Speaker Khin Aung Myint. He was re-elected Upper House MP of the Kachin State Constituency-1 in the 2015 General Election. “I don’t remember the date. In around December 2011, they (CPI) met with me. The delegation included the GM and the female secretary. The GM is a female. The GM herself can speak Myanmar language. The GM said the company paid too much money to the heads of the State. But she did not talk to me like so. First she asked my bank accounts. But I have no bank account. They said they want to put money into the bank account. They asked me to extend a helping hand. They said they would start lobbying to resume the Myitsone dam project. They urged me to keep silent about the Myitsone Dam project..."
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Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
2019-01-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-28
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Description: "Religious leaders from the Buddhist, Catholic and Muslim communities in Myanmar have joined the chorus of opposition to the Myitsone Dam, a Chinese-backed hydropower project on the Irrawaddy River, as Aung San Su Kyi’s government faces a decision on the U.S. $3.6 billion project. Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to travel to Beijing at the end of this month to attend China’s Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. She and her ministers have been tightlipped on the fate of the dam in Kachin State, which was suspended in 2011, but they face strong Chinese pressure to resume construction. The Venerable U Seindita, a Buddhist monk from Asia Light Monastery and promoter of interfaith harmony in Myanmar, said the Myitsone dam project should be cancelled permanently. “With regard to Myitsone dam, former president U Thein Sein promised to suspend the construction during his five years tenure and he actually made it happen,” he said. “Now, the National League for Democracy (NLD) government should be trying to cancel the project permanently. They should not postpone the decision to cancel this project and pass this project on to the next government,” the monk added..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
2019-04-19
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-28
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Sub-title: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, in Beijing this week for the Belt and Road Forum, finds herself in a much weaker negotiating position than on her last visit to China in 2017.
Description: "With Myanmar’s diplomatic isolation, stalled peace process and lacklustre economy, Daw Suu has far fewer cards in her hands. Beijing is Myanmar’s key “defender” in the United Nations at a time when the government’s handling of the Rakhine crisis and the recent jailing of two Reuters journalists have eroded its standing in the international community. China currently also accounts for a quarter of all approved foreign investments in the country. In Beijing, the State Counsellor is expected to discuss the highly controversial Myitsone dam project with her Chinese counterparts. The US$3.6 billion, 6000MW dam, backed by China’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), was suspended by then-President U Thein Sein in 2011, owing to widespread domestic opposition. Recent developments suggest Daw Suu is under pressure from the Chinese to resuscitate the dam. As I’ve argued, resumption would place her National League for Democracy party at risk in next year’s General Election. Just this week, thousands of people in Kachin’s Waingmaw township protested against Myitsone. In Bago Region recently, Daw Suu told local residents to think about the project from “a wider perspective.” She should explain what she meant by that, and say what other factors are taken into account. For starters, transparency is essential. For example, officials of SPIC have been urging the Myanmar government to publicly disclose details of the Myitsone contract since June 2016. And this is not the only enterprise which needs to come clean..."
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Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
2019-04-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-28
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Description: "Amid growing public concern about Chinese-backed development projects in Myanmar, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will leave for Beijing late this month to attend the second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) summit. During her meeting with the Chinese President Xi Jinping there, she is quite likely to discuss the Myitsone Dam, the most controversial Chinese project in the country so far. As well the Myitsone dam, another important China-backed development project is now underway on the shore of Bay of Bengal in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine. Prior to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s visit to China, The Irrawaddy talks to Bertil Linter, a Swedish journalist and author who has been covering Myanmar and Southeast Asia for nearly four decades, on China’s major involvement—from development projects to the peace process—in the country. The momentum to cancel the Myitsone dam is building in Myanmar. This coincides with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s upcoming visit to China where she will attend the second BRI summit. She has been very vague about her stance on the dam and some articles written by the NLD (National League for Democracy) party members have been indicating that the dam should get the go-ahead. Government leaders are suggesting the dam is downsized or relocated. Moreover, several projects which the current government has agreed to implement with China have not been disclosed to the public. What is your opinion on this? I believe Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be aware of the fact that it would be political suicide to agree on a resumption of the Myitsone project. With elections coming up next year, any Myanmar politician would have to think carefully before agreeing to such a controversial, and hugely unpopular, project like this one. We all remember how much she was against it when she was in opposition. Why does she appear to have softened her stance on the matter? That’s a question that should be posed to her..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2019-04-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-28
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Description: "If Myitsone issue fails to be resolved after a long delay, it will seriously hurt the confidence of Chinese entrepreneurs in investing in Myanmar. Therefore, China and Myanmar are in close consultation on the issue of Myitsone hydropower project to find out a proper solution acceptable to both sides as soon as possible, said Mr. Hong Liang, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar. Mr. Hong Liang, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar, visited Myitkyina and met with leaders of political parties and social organizations in Kachin State on 28 and 29 December 2018. On the economic and trade cooperation between China and Kachin State, Ambassador Hong Liang said that in accordance with the consensus reached by the state leaders of the two countries, China and Myanmar are jointly building the Belt and Road and China-Myanmar Economic Corridor. Kachin State is adjacent to China, acting as an important hub of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor. At present, the two sides are planning to build Houqiao-Kanpitetee China-Myanmar border economic cooperation zone and an industrial park in Myitkyina. China and Myanmar are also actively pushing forward the connectivity of railways, highways and power grids, which will bring enormous opportunities for the economic and social development of Kachin State. Ambassador Hong Liang said that currently one of the difficulties facing China-Myanmar cooperation is the issue of Myitsone hydropower project, which has been put on hold for seven years. If this issue fails to be resolved after a long delay, it will seriously hurt the confidence of Chinese entrepreneurs in investing in Myanmar. In addition to that, Myanmar’s economic and social development and the building of China-Myanmar Economic Corridor require sufficient electricity supply. To this end, China and Myanmar are in close consultation on the issue of Myitsone hydropower project to find out a proper solution acceptable to both sides as soon as possible. In this connection, support from the people of Kachin State would be highly valued..."
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Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
2019-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-27
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Description: "The Myitsone Dam, the largest of seven hydropower projects planned on the Upper Irrawaddy, has been shrouded in controversy since it was first mooted in 2009 when Myanmar was under military junta rule. Estimated at an initial cost of US$3.6 billion, the project was announced as a joint venture between the China Power Investment Corporation (CPIC; now State Power Investment Corporation) and Myanmar conglomerate Asia World Company. However, in a move that surprised observers, shortly after coming to power in 2011 then President U Thein Sein announced the project would be suspended for the remainder of his term. At the time Lu Qizhou, president of CPIC, told Chinese media that he was “totally astonished” by the decision. The issue has now been pushed onto the agenda of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which took power in 2016, but a decision has still not been made about the future of Myitsone..."
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Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
2019-10-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-27
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Description: "The National Network for the Total Shutdown of Myitsone Dam Project yesterday called on the government to transparently publicize the Myitsone Dam contract within one month and to officially allow copying the contract. The network urged the government to public this contract between May 28 to June 28. The future tasks have been discussed if the government fails to make it public. Officials of the network did not reveal the ways of how to proceed, said Lawyer Kyi Myint, a member of the network. There are distrusts and hatreds between the citizens, those who signed the contract, China, the existing government, parliaments and the ministries. The showcase of the contract would amount to promoting the democratic rights of the people. Section 390 under Chapter-8 of the Constitution, the network is working on the complete cancellation of Myitsone Dam Project. The network was formed on May 2. The message I would like to convey to the State is that the President, the State Counsellor and parliaments are urged to recognize our desires and inclusiveness as our country is a democratic country. The people said that it is difficult to cancel the Myitsone Dam project. It is not difficult. Our country and people will make decision from the national interest point of view, said Zaw Yan, the spokesperson of the Network..."
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
2019-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-15
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Sub-title: State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday appealed to people to be open-minded about the stalled Myitsone Dam Project in Kachin State.
Description: "She said her government cannot just do what it wants with contracts and projects started by the previous government, apparently referring to the Myitsone Dam, which was signed with the Chinese by the government of U Than Shwe. The State Counsellor warned the country will face isolation if each government that comes to power fails to respect agreements entered into by previous administrations. “If we think we are right in doing something, we must have confidence to do it without being afraid of being hated. We are in politics not to be loved but for the sake of the country,” she told residents during a visit to Pyay township in Bago Region. She said the government will decide on big projects, including Myitsone Dam, by considering their economic, social, political and environmental effects. “It will be wrong if only one thing is considered,” she said, adding that the government’s decision would be transparent and the public would know all the reasons for the decision. “People should think in a comprehensive and open-minded fashion,” she said..."
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Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times" (Myanmar)
2019-03-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-15
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Description: "Political and religious leaders in Myanmar’s Kachin state have hit back at apparent efforts by Beijing to breathe new life into a controversial China-funded dam project as the Southeast Asian nation comes under fire from the West over its treatment of the Rohingya Muslims. In a joint statement released on Monday, three ethnic Kachin political parties said they were seeking the “permanent suspension” of the US$3.6 billion Myitsone Dam project, which has been on hold since 2011 but had been slated for completion this year. “This is the people’s desire. We won’t change our policy on the Myitsone hydropower dam,” Gumgrawng Awng Hkam, chairman of the Kachin Democratic Party, told Myanmar’s Network Media Group..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
2019-01-20
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-03
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Description: "Senior officials from China’s Yunnan province once again pressured Kachin religious leaders to support the revival of the controversial Myitsone hydropower project at a meeting last week in the Chinese border town of Ruili, an influential Kachin religious leader told The Irrawaddy. At the meeting between top Yunnan leaders and representatives of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) on Friday, the Chinese officials said Chinese President Xi Jinping was a strong supporter of the Myitsone Dam project. “They said it would be better if we accept the Myitsone project, as it would bring benefits to the [local] people,” said KBC president Rev. Hkalam Samson. Located at the confluence of the two rivers that form Myanmar’s “lifeline”, the Irrawaddy River, the US$3.6-billion (nearly 5.5 trillion kyats) project was suspended by then-president U Thein Sein in 2011 amid a widespread public outcry over the dam’s potentially serious social and environmental impacts. However, it came under the spotlight again when Chinese Ambassador Hong Liang claimed after a visit to Kachin State at the end of December that the Kachin people were not opposed to its resumption..."
Source/publisher: "Belt & Road News" (China)
2019-03-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-01
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Description: "Recently, there has been a marked escalation in the Chinese Government’s attempts at reviving the controversial Myitsone Dam Project. Since a tense meeting by the Chinese Embassy with Kachin leaders, the actions of both the Chinese and Myanmar governments have only heightened fears that the mammoth US$3.6-billion, 6,000 MW Dam will be pushed forward, risking the livelihoods of thousands of people and endangering crucial biodiversity. The NLD government’s rhetoric over the project has been, at best, feeble. Minister for Investment and Foreign Economic Relations U Thaung Tun stated that, while public anxiety should be respected, the project should continue as companies have already heavily invested in it. His remark echoed a comment by State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (who had been an ardent critic of the dam in 2011) in Kalay the previous week in which she called for deals made under the previous government to be respected. According to U Thaung Tun, alternative areas have been explored. So far, however, these areas have not been outlined to the public, which only serves to fuel speculation. Respect for public anxiety: What, in practice, has that entailed so far? As of this moment, this respect has taken the form of hollow reassurances that match up little with actions on the ground. The most notable example of this was the recent dismissal of three ministers in Kachin State. The said ministers U H Hla Aung, U Mya Thein and U Thin Lwin were each responsible for key areas that would have been impacted by the Myitsone project..."
Source/publisher: "Belt & Road News" (China)
2019-02-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-28
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Description: "Amid increasing pressure from China to resume the controversial Myitsone Dam project, the State Counsellor has promised that her government will make a final decision on the dam based upon political, economic and environmental considerations, and vowed to make public the details of the decision. When asked her opinion of the Myitsone Dam project at a meeting with local residents in Pyay, Bago Region on Thursday, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, “I would like you to think about the project from a wider perspective.” She said, “We should not think based on one perspective. If we think from only one perspective, we could make the wrong decision.” The State Counsellor said the final decision would have to be politically, socially, economically and environmentally sound and sustainable. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not offer her own stance on whether the dam project should be scrapped, nor did she say when a decision would be made. However, she said her government should not abolish projects approved by a previous government just because it did not comply with the current administration’s policies. If government of the day were to break promises made by previous governments, the country would lose credibility, she said. She added that her government would make decisions transparently, not only when it comes to the Myitsone project, but also on other projects..."
Source/publisher: "Belt & Road News" (China)
2019-03-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "China’s policy towards the Myitsone dam issue has experienced several major changes since Myanmar suspended the controversial project in September 2011. At first, Beijing overtly asked the Myanmar government to promote the implementation of big projects in Myanmar and the Myitsone dam was included. Yet, Beijing adopted a pragmatic attitude towards the Myitsone issue after Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) took office in April 2016, in which it pursued for Myanmar’s compensation for reneging on the terms of the contract rather than simply resuming the project. The main reasons for China’s softened position on the Myitsone issue are the following: first, Yunnan, the main buyer of the electricity from Myitsone dam, now has an oversupply of electricity and needs to export its growing electricity holding to ease the excess hydropower capacity. Second, China fully realizes that there would be strong national resistance against the Myanmar government’s decision to revive the Myitsone project. Third, China is anxious about Myanmar’s swing to the US due to their disputes over the Myitsone issue. Fourth, China wants to implement other projects at the expense of cooling down the Myitsone dam. Fifth, China is waiting for an opportunity to resolve the Myitsone issue. Yet, China seems to has renewed hope that the Myitsone dam would be restarted as the bilateral ties with Myanmar has been on the upswing since the Rohingya refugee crisis in the mid-2017. During a visit to Kachin in December 2018, China’s ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang said the Myitsone dam was crucial for both Beijing and Naypyidaw, and that any further delays could hamper bilateral relations. Then, in January 2019, a statement published by the Chinese Embassy in Yangon said “If this issue fails to be resolved... it will seriously hurt the confidence of Chinese entrepreneurs to invest in Myanmar... the two sides should find an acceptable solution as soon as possible”. It also claimed that Kachin political leaders and social organizations have a “positive attitude” toward the dam, leading to a widespread speculation that China wants to revive the controversial project. Why China is so keen to revive the Myitsone dam now? Four reasons could explain China’s significant change in the Myitsone issue. First and foremost, China tries to move forward the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by resuming the Myitsone project. As Joe Kumbun, who is a local analyst based in Kachin, said China attempts to provide full electricity to the Economic Cooperation Zone along the Myanmar-China border and the industrial zones in northern Kachin, the key elements of CMEC and BRI, through restarting the Myitsone dam. Second, China tries to revive the Myitsone dam and push forward with others projects by using it as support for Myanmar in the face of mounting international pressures over the Rohingya crisis. Third, China is getting upset because the Myanmar government has hung up the Myitsone dam for seven years and dragged its heels on the resolution to the Myitsone issue. Fourth, China is increasingly concerned about the serious consequences of the Myitsone project in the general election in Myanmar in 2020. In other words, the Myitsone dam might be a focus in the coming elections and be manipulated by the West to undermine the warm relations between China and Myanmar. Given the factors discussed above, China wants to address the Myitsone issue as soon as possible, thus removing the main barrier in their bilateral ties and promoting the economic cooperation between the two countries..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Burma Rivers Network" (Myanmar)
2019-04-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s former military junta inked the $3.6 billion deal for the hydropower project located on the Irrawaddy River in 2009, according to Reuters, with Myanmar’s military linked Asia World Co. and China’s State Owned utility company China Power Investment Corp. tasked with its construction. Work on the dam was suspended in September 2011 by then Myanmar’s President Thein Sein after public protests. At the time, Aung San Suu Kyi, before she became the leader of the current quasi-civilian Government in Myanmar, was one of the voices of opposition. Suu Kyi once said the dam would threaten the flow of the Irrawaddy River, and force the relocation of more than 10,000 people from 63 nearby villages, according to Reuters. But after Suu Kyi became head of the ruling National League for Democracy party and the effective prime minister of the country, Beijing began to exact pressure to resume the dam’s construction. In June 2016, a delegation headed by China’s Ambassador to Myanmar travelled to Kachin to lobby for restarting the dam project, according to news magazine Frontier Myanmar. Most recently, in November 2018, the magazine reported that the Chinese regime wanted the project to be packaged as part of its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, and conveyed the message that other OBOR projects in Myanmar’s wouldn’t proceed unless the dam is restarted..."
Source/publisher: "Belt & Road News" (China)
2019-04-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s Kachin state has been rocked by huge protests this week against the US $ 3.6 billon Myitsone dam project to be entirely financed by China. The biggest protest rally took place in Manaw Park in the state capital town of Myitkyina of Kachin state on Thursday after more than 10,000 people from different parts of the state marched into Myitkyina. The protesters, mostly from Myitkyiba and Waingmaw townships, were led by Kachin political and civil society groups, religious leaders from the powerful Baptist Church and the Buddhist Sangha and the local youth groups. They called for a complete halt to the China-financed work on the Myitsone dam on the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) River. The protests have been provoked by reports of fresh Chinese attempts to pressurize the Aung San Suu Kyi led NLD government to resume the 6000 MW hydel project..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Northeast Now" (India)
2019-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Chinese companies are pushing to resume destructive dam projects, ignoring a key assessment
Description: "Much media attention in Myanmar is focussed on China’s apparent efforts to revive the stalled Myitsone dam, its role in advising the Myanmar government on developing a new hydropower strategy white paper, and the implications of these developments for the adoption of the World Bank-led strategic environmental assessment of Myanmar’s hydropower sector, which was released in late 2018. The debate appears to revolve around the assumption that the country must choose between a strategy for large hydropower development supported by western donors and the World Bank or one supported by China. While its contents are unknown, there is concern that the white paper may push forward highly environmentally and socially destructive projects such as the Myitsone dam and the series of mega dams proposed for the Salween River main stem (also known as Thanlwin), each involving Chinese companies and financiers. But is this assumption right? The long-awaited environmental assessment recommended not building dams on the main stem of five major river basins, including the Ayeyarwady and Salween. This would remove the controversial Myitsone and the Salween main stem dams from Myanmar’s energy development plans, which have been fiercely opposed by civil society groups. Government adoption of this recommendation would reflect sound science on the adverse ecological impacts of large hydropower dams on mainstream river systems and provide critical recognition of the multiple values – ecological, social, economic and cultural – delivered by these rivers..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "thethirdpole.net"
2019-03-13
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "After heavily investing in the Myitsone Dam, China re-engages discussions about resuming construction of the project stalled for many years. The Chinese ambassador for Burma pressed to restart a contentious hydro-power dam project during a recent meeting with important Kachin political leaders in northern Myanmar. “The Chinese ambassador said China wants to resume construction of the Myitsone hydropower dam construction, since it’s already heavily invested in the project,” said U Kwam Gowng Awng Kham, chairman for Kachin Democratic Party. Planned near Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, the dam project has been a massive undertaking by the Chinese government, U Kwam Gowng Awng Kham said. With its suspension, China is going to keep trying to reboot the project. The previous Thein Sein government suspended it in 2011 after the project received widespread opposition. If it’s completed it would generate 6,000 megawatts, making it the fifteenth largest dam in the world. Most of the dam’s output would be sent to China. It would cause extensive flooding, and because it’s planned on a fault line, there are legitimate fears an earthquake could damage it causing flooding that would inundate neighboring Kachin State capital, Myitkyina. Since the NLD government came to power, China has been pushing for State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to restart the project. The objective of the Myitsone hydropower dam is for regional development, said U Kwam Gowng Awng Kham, but the negative impact a mega project of this kind will have on the environment would be huge. This is why Kachin and so many others across the country have been against it from the start..."
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group" via Network Media Group (Canada)
2019-01-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "I am from Myitkyina, a Kachin, born and bred in the town just 43 kilometers downstream from where the Mali and N’Mai Rivers merge to form the great Irrawaddy, the lifeblood of our nation, Myanmar. Myitsone, the confluence site, also has added significance for us Kachins: It is the heartland of our cultural identity. So it would not be a stretch to say that the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) is part of my life, just as it is for all who call Myanmar their home. To have the Irrawaddy flow freely for all time is a cause very dear to my heart. And putting my money where my mouth is, I used the US$50,000 I received from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation as seed money to establish the non-profit organization Airavati with a few like-minded friends in 2014. Airavati’s major work entails preserving the environment, culture and way of life of the diverse communities that flourish along the Irrawaddy’s path – from its watersheds in the upper reaches of Kachin state to the delta region in Myanmar’s south. The Irrawaddy is a precious national heritage. From time immemorial, the Bamar and other ethnic nationalities have lived and thrived along its riverbanks. Not only is it an amazing natural ecosystem, it is also an icon of our cultural and national identity. If we do not safeguard this treasure, we will suffer from its devastating loss, just as our neighbors to our immediate east did when the Chinese dammed the Mekong River within their borders. The impact on downstream countries – Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – has been disastrous and irreversible..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Times" (Hong Kong)
2019-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Kachin civil society organizations are preparing to hold a public protest on Thursday in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina against the proposed Myitsone dam. Tsaji, from the Kachin Development Network Group, said they are calling for participation from people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds in a statewide protest of the Myitsone hydropower project, which would dam the confluence of the Irrawaddy River. "All of us need to participate in a public protest against the Myitsone dam. We have a duty to protect the mother Irrawaddy River,” he told KNG. Chinese ambassador H.E. Hong Liang met Kachin leaders and locals in the Kachin State capital of Myitkyina in December of last year. The Chinese embassy in Yangon then released a controversial statement describing the meeting on January 13. The embassy’s statement said, “the Kachin ethnic people in Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower dam project. The organizations and people who oppose the dam project are outsiders.” Tsaji said that the protest is being held to show that this statement “is completely wrong” and continue to call for the “permanent halt” of the Myitsone dam. An expected 10,000 people will join Thursday’s protest on the Manau festival grounds in Myitkyina. Mung Ra, a pastor with the Kachin Baptist Convention living in Mali Yang internally displaced people’s camp, said he will join the demonstration on behalf of those who were forced to move to make way for the dam project..."
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group" via Kachin News Group
2019-02-06
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Topic: Myitsone Dam, hydropower, China, foreign investment, protests, Anti-Adhamma Committee
Topic: Myitsone Dam, hydropower, China, foreign investment, protests, Anti-Adhamma Committee
Description: "Politicians, activists and civil society representatives will gather in Yangon on April 1 to expand their campaign against the Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam, leaders of the movement said at a small protest in Yangon on Monday. U Aung Soe Myint, a leader of the movement, told Frontier the group had invited NGOs, political parties and environmental experts from every state and region to come together in opposition to the multi-billion dollar project. “We have also invited National League for Democracy officials and NLD members of parliament, but I am not sure whether or not they will attend,” Aung Soe Myint, who is also the vice chair of the People’s Party in Mandalay, said at the 50-person demonstration in downtown Yangon on Monday afternoon. The group will form an executive committee at the meeting, he said, and will devise strategies for campaigning against the dam. U Myat Kyaw, a leader of the Anti-Adhamma Committee, a liberal Buddhist group that opposes ultra-nationalists, said at the protest that the people of Myanmar should not stay silent over the future of the mega-project, which was suspended in 2011 by President U Thein Sein in response to a growing national opposition movement. Public concerns include large-scale displacement and loss of livelihoods, the destruction of cultural heritage and environmental degradation. Myat Kyaw said it was time to unite against the damming of the Ayeyarwady River. Amid increasing pressure from China to restart the project, he said Myitsone would only be cancelled if Myanmar presented a united front, and suggested that the government needed the support of the people to stand up to China..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-03-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: China, Myitsone Dam,India, foreign investment, international relations, conflict
Sub-title: If China and India seek sustainable development in Myanmar, they should engage more locally and listen to the voices of affected communities. For China, this starts with the Myitsone Dam.
Topic: China, Myitsone Dam,India, foreign investment, international relations, conflict
Description: "MYANMAR HAS two major assets that interest China: access to the Indian Ocean and plentiful natural resources. During the rule of Myanmar’s military junta, 1988-2011, China won access to both by protecting the regime from the impact of sanctions and condemnation by Western countries. Under President U Thein Sein’s transitional, military-backed government, beginning in 2011, Myanmar moved closer to Western powers, seeking to lessen the country’s dependence on its giant neighbour to the north. Many observers assumed that, under a National League for Democracy-led, semi-civilian government, the pivot away from China would continue . However, since 2016, when the NLD took office, China has increased its influence in Myanmar, in large part because of the country’s renewed isolation over the Rohingya crisis. In Kachin State, which borders China to the north and east, the consequences of this shift are profound. China has had direct access to the Indian Ocean since 2013, when a gas pipeline that spans Myanmar became operational. The 2,520-kilometre pipeline starts from Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State on Myanmar’s western coast, enters China from Shan State at Ruili in Yunnan Province and ends at Guigang in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. A parallel crude oil pipeline that stops at Kunming began operating in 2017. As well as their economic value, these projects give China long-term leverage over Myanmar. Since 2017, the government has come under renewed international pressure over the widespread and systematic abuses perpetrated by the Tatmadaw against the Rohingya population in northern Rakhine State. More than 700,000 civilians fled across the border to Bangladesh, which is now home to more than a million Rohingya refugees. Through its veto powers at the United Nations Security Council, China has protected Myanmar by blocking moves to penalise the government. While there have been many losers in the Rohingya crisis, China has been a clear winner. The Tatmadaw has also done well out of it; the NLD-led civilian government, much less so..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-03-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Three ethnic Kachin political parties said on Monday they sought the “permanent suspension” of the multi-billion dollar Myitsone Dam, discrediting a Chinese embassy statement that implied support for the divisive project among the state’s political leaders. Manam Tu Ja, chair of the Kachin State Democracy Party, told Frontier that the statement, which was signed by the KSDP, the Kachin Democratic Party and the Unity and Democracy Party, is a clarification of their position aimed at the Kachin people. It could also help the Chinese embassy to understand the wishes and policies of the three parties, he said. “We have no plan yet to respond directly to the Chinese embassy because some [other] parties in Kachin could have said that they support the project,” he said. The embassy’s statement on January 13 concerned a December visit by Chinese ambassador Mr Hong Liang to Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, where he held discussions with political leaders and social organisations on the peace process and IDP resettlement, the anti-drug campaign in northern Myanmar, and investment. Kachin political leaders and social organisations had a “positive attitude” towards the 6000-megawatt Myitsone Dam, the statement said. It said they assured Hong Liang that “local people of Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower project; It is some individuals and social organizations from outside that oppose the project”. But Reverend Hkalam Samson, chair of the Kachin Baptist Convention, who met Hong Liang during the visit, told Frontier that the statement was untrue..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Myitsone Dam, Kachin State, hydropower, China, SPIC, foreign investment, Belt and Road Initiative, Ayeyarwady River, protests
Topic: Myitsone Dam, Kachin State, hydropower, China, SPIC, foreign investment, Belt and Road Initiative, Ayeyarwady River, protests
Description: " Thousands of people in northern Myanmar took to the streets on Monday to protest against the proposed reinstatement of a Chinese-backed mega-dam they say will cause huge environmental damage and bring little benefit to the country. The protest came just days ahead of a trip by civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Beijing for a summit on China's Belt and Road Initiative. Myanmar's former military junta signed a 2009 deal with Beijing to construct the Myitsone dam in Kachin State. But public anger rose to the surface as the country started to transition towards democracy and the US$3.6 billion project was mothballed two years later. If the 6,000 megawatt dam were built on the country's famed Ayeyarwady River, it would flood an area the size of Singapore, displacing tens of thousands. Now China is increasing pressure on its southern neighbour to revive the controversial project. On Monday protesters marched through the Kachin town of Waingmaw, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the proposed site of the dam, brandishing banners reading "No Myitsone Dam" and calling for the river to "flow freely forever". "Myitsone is our inheritance from our ancestors and we cannot lose it," protester Tang Gun told AFP by phone. He said more than 4,000 people took part in the march while several thousand more had signed a petition pledging their support for the protest..."
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" via AFP
2019-04-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Dam Kachin Myanmar Myitsone Dam
Sub-title: The government of Myanmar is working to restart the controversial Myitsone dam project in Kachin State. It doesn’t bode well for the ongoing peace process.
Topic: Dam Kachin Myanmar Myitsone Dam
Description: "Following Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s attendance at China’s Belt and Road Initiative forum on April 25, the government is working with Beijing to revive the Myitsone hydropower project. Myitsone is a Chinese-backed dam proposed for the Irrawaddy River that was suspended in September 2011 due to popular opposition. State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi originally opposed the US$3.6 billion dam. She supported a community campaign to stop the project due to its environmental and social impact. This opposition eventually caused then-president Thein Sein to suspend the 6,000 MW project. Recently, Suu Kyi changed her rhetoric, encouraging local Kachin communities who would be impacted by the dam “to think [about the project] from a wider perspective.” Local Kachin communities still oppose Myitsone – demonstrations against the dam drew thousands of supporters in February and again in April. However, China has continued its efforts to revive the project, claiming late last year that the Kachin population was supportive. The Myanmar government is indicating that it may be willing to prioritize the dam, a key piece of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), over lasting peace and equitable development in Kachin. Suu Kyi has shifted her stance on the economic, social and environmental disaster that is Myitsone..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "ASEAN Today"
2019-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Thousands of people marched peacefully in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina on Thursday against the Myitsone Dam, raising their voices in unison to the words, “Our rights! We don’t want it!” The two-hour march began at 9am at the Kachin National Manau Park and progressed through the commercial heart of the city. The crowd, estimated by participants at around 7,000, held handwritten posters and vinyl banners with slogans including “Dams on the Irrawaddy will cut off Burma’s Lifeblood,” “Let displaced villagers return home now,” and “Cancel all dams on the Irrawaddy and its tributaries.” Demonstrators comprised a broad spectrum of civil society, including students, elders, church leaders, activists, internally displaced people, and those relocated from their villages for the project. A joint venture signed in 2009 between China’s State Power Investment Corporation, Myanmar’s military junta and conglomerate Asia World envisaged a series of seven hydroelectric dams that would be built on the N’Mai and Mali rivers, including at the confluence about 26 miles north of Myitkyina where the Ayeyarwady River begins. In 2011, President U Thein Sein suspended the project in response to a growing national resistance movement. Public concerns included large-scale displacement and loss of livelihoods, the destruction of cultural heritage and environmental degradation..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-02-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Hkawn Tawng, a Kachin widow, was forced to move from her original home close to the confluence where the Irrawaddy river is formed in northern Kachin State nearly a decade ago on the orders of the government to make way for the Myitsone mega-dam project. Her new home in the Aung Myin Thar “model village” built by the Chinese firm behind the Myitsone project and its local partner Asia World, is no longer structurally sound. A problem shared by many of the homes in Aung Myin Thar which is built on a floodplain. Her home was left severely damaged by strong winds on May 19th and since the storm, she has had to abandon her home altogether. “My house had been damaged for a long time but I could still live in the house. Now I can’t live in my house. It’s really bad when it rains. I can’t sleep in my house. I already told the respective authorities about it. They promised to fix my house. Then the carpenters came to see my house to repair it. The carpenters said they could not fix the house and it would be better to construct a new house but I am a widow. I can’t afford to construct a new house,” Daw Hkawn Tawng told Kachin News Group (KNG). The firm which was then known as China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) but is now called State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) and its local partner Asia World, built the houses between 2009 and 2011 for villagers who were ordered by the government to move to make way for the Myitsone dam. According to relocated villagers the houses were built by Asia World quickly using poor materials. Asia World, is a large Myanmar conglomerate founded by Lo Hsing Han, a former militia leader infamously dubbed the “Godfather of Heroin” by American officials. Today the firm is run by his son Steven Law also known as Htun Myint Naing..."
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group"
2019-09-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "Non-governmental organizations, political parties, and environmental experts from every state and region in Myanmar have been invited to come together in opposition to the China-financed Myitsone Hydropower Dam project, Frontier Myanmar magazine reported. So far, only 44 percent of households in Myanmar have access to electricity. Addressing a nationwide power shortage, Myanmar's government has set a target to increase the figure to 50 percent by the end of 2019 and 75 percent by the end of 2025. According to rough estimates, the design installed capacity of the dam was 6,000 megawatts, with the annual generation capacity tripling the annual power consumption of Myanmar in 2011. That means initially Myanmar's domestic market could not consume the total generation capacity of the dam. But as the domestic demand for power consumption rises in Myanmar, it is likely the Myitsone Hydropower Dam project would supply 100 percent of its electricity to the Myanmar market. Relevant research shows that the building of the Myitsone Hydropower Dam will improve the traditional way of living of locals who rely on agriculture and hunting and contribute to ecological protection. The protest against the Myitsone Hydropower Dam is not conducive to reaching these goals. Some politicians and environmental experts who have participated in the campaign enjoy priority use of electricity, but their protests against the dam leave many others to live in the dark..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Burma Rivers Network" via Global Times
2019-04-03
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "Though Myanmar officials have expressed their appreciation for the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese analysts noted that more practical outcomes should be delivered apart from optimistic plans, as some BRI projects still face uncertainty in the Southeast Asian country. A positive momentum to further promote the implementation of the China-proposed initiative in Myanmar has been seen recently, analysts said. During a visit to the China-Myanmar border in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province from Saturday to Monday, Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi stressed that the stability of border areas is directly related to joint efforts to promote cooperation under the initiative. Also on Monday, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said BRI could bring opportunities to Myanmar and the region, at the first meeting of the steering committee for the implementation of tasks relating to the initiative, the Xinhua News Agency reported..."
Source/publisher: "Belt & Road News"
2019-02-23
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Sub-title: Concerns intensify as Chinese apply pressure to have controversial megaproject restarted
Description: "Kachin villagers displaced by the construction of the suspended Myitsone Dam have called on the government to permanently halt the China-backed project. Bernadette Ja Hkawng was forced to make way for the megaproject and leave her Tangphre village and relocate elsewhere in 2010. She was one of at least 3,000 people relocated from their ancestral homes for the dam’s construction. Following protests and widespread environmental concerns, the military-backed government of President Thein Sein suspended dam construction in September 2011. Ja Hkawng told ucanews.com that she is now fearful the controversial project will be restarted due to Chinese pressure on the government. Ja Hkawng, a Catholic, said she was concerned by a recent Chinese embassy statement that said local people are not against the project built on the Irrawaddy River. She said the Chinese were ignoring the cultural and environmental concerns of the people in Kachin State. “The Irrawaddy River is the main river in the country and it is like a main blood lifeline, so all people across Myanmar have a duty to protect it,” Ja Hkawng said..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "UCAnews"
2019-01-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "A report on multi-billion dollar Myitsone dam submitted to the president by the Investigation Committee of Myitsone Dam has been long over one year, but no reply as of yet from the government, said Dr. Khet Aung, Kachin Chief Minister, who is also a member of the Investigation Committee of Myitsone Dam. “We have meetings every two months to discuss our proposals. Those discussions eventually are submitted to the president. Although the report was sent one year ago, there has not been any response. The Kachin State is unauthorized to decide it; instead the Union government will have to do it. Ultimately the verdict over the area will depend upon the president, not the local administration,” said Dr. Khet Aung. The commission was established on August 12, 2016 and is led by U T Khun Myat, Speaker of Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House), and this includes Dr. Khet Aung, Kachin Chief Minister and legal expert Daw Mayri Maynan..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group"
2019-07-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: "The confluence of the Ayeyarwady River and the Mali and the N'Mai rivers. The Myitsone dam was to be located a mile downstream of this point. Photo: Yu Jincui/GT A campaign aimed at putting an end to the Myitsone Dam project is reportedly to be held in Myanmar's Yangon on Monday, which Chinese experts said will exert a negative influence on the Southeast Asian country's economic development. Politicians and activists, as well as civil society representatives will gather in Yangon on Monday to protest against the Myitsone Dam, Frontier Myanmar magazine reported. In an interview with Frontier Myanmar, U Aung Soe Myint, a leader of the movement, said that they had invited NGOs, political parties and environmental experts from every state and region of Myanmar to join the protest. The group will also form an executive committee to devise strategies to campaign against the dam. Gu Xiaosong, an expert on Southeast Asian studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday that the protest is driven predominantly by political reasons. "Some organizations are incited by certain Western forces which are trying to damage China-Myanmar relations. It is not really out of concern for the environment as they have declared," Gu said, adding that most ordinary citizens who were instigated to join the protest have no idea of the real situation. The dam, which was suspended in 2011, has cost Chinese financiers and contractors dearly. It is one of the key issues to be addressed between the two countries..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Burma Rivers Network" via Global Times
2019-04-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "The Chinese state-owned company behind the controversial Myitsone hydropower project in Kachin State last week tried to assure state lawmakers that the suspended mega dam on Myanmar’s lifeline Irrawaddy River would not collapse despite its proximity to one of the country’s biggest seismic fault lines. In the company’s latest attempt to revive the suspended hydropower project, a group of Chinese experts backed by China’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) tried to convince lawmakers in the state parliament on Friday that there is no need to worry that the dam will collapse in the event of an earthquake, or to fear the destruction of the region’s biodiversity or other potential environmental impacts due to the mega dam project. Attending the meeting in the Kachin State parliament’s Banquet Hall was a group led by SPIC officials that included three Chinese experts and a French seismologist based in Beijing..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-06-25
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-25
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Description: "More than 8,000 residents of Waingmaw township in Myanmar’s Kachin state protested on Monday to call for a complete halt to the controversial Myitsone dam project, urging government action ahead of a visit to Beijing at the end of this month by national leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Construction of the Chinese-backed U.S. $3.6 billion hydropower project on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin state, begun in 2009, has stalled since 2011 because of concerns over potential flooding and other environmental impacts and anger that 90 percent of its electricity would be exported to China. Suspension of the project has dismayed China, which has been pushing Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy government to allow the hydropower project to resume, arguing that Chinese companies have already invested heavily in it. Aung San Suu Kyi has been tight lipped on the fate of the project, but said in mid-March that it is important for her government to uphold investment projects approved by previous administrations or risk being perceived by investors as unreliable. Others have raised concerns that Myanmar would have to pay large compensation to China if the project is scrapped..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "RFA"
2019-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-24
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Description: "Following the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang’s Myitkyina visit that took place from 28 to 29 December 2018, where he met leaders of political parties and social organizations in Kachin State, news have been making the rounds that the ambassador has been bossy and even intimidating when interacting with the Kachin leaders during his visit. Reportedly, during the visit, ambassador Hong Liang met with chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP) Manam Tu Ja, chairman of the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State (UDP-KS) U Hkyet Hting Nan, chairman of the Kachin Democracy Party (KDP) Gumgrawng Awng Hkam, chairman of the Lisu National Development Party U Si Phar Lar Lu (U Shwe Minn), chairman of the Shan Ethnic Affairs Society (Northern Myanmar) U Sai San Wae and chairman of the Kachin Baptist Convention Hkalam Samson. According to the The Irrawaddy report on January 9, when the Chinese ambassador met Gumgrawng Awng Hkam and Rev. Hkalam Samson respectively at Palm Spring Hotel in Myitkyina, he warned them not to be so cordial and friendly with western diplomats, otherwise they would face serious consequences. Both claimed that the ambassador briefed them in a bossy manner, warning them not to oppose Chinese projects in Kachin State, including the controversial Myitsone hydro-power project. The meeting with the Chinese ambassador came after the US and UK ambassadors visited Kachin State. During their meetings in Myitkyina with Kachin political leaders and other prominent members of the Kachin community, both ambassadors discussed the peace process, the safe return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), promotion of education and health and free and fair elections. Both Gumgrawng Awng Hkam and Rev. Hkalam Samson attended those meetings. Consequently, Kachin politicians invited the ambassadors to open liaison offices in Myitkyina in order to promote relations..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group"
2019-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Following the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang’s Myitkyina visit that took place from 28 to 29 December 2018, where he met leaders of political parties and social organizations in Kachin State, news have been making the rounds that the ambassador has been bossy and even intimidating when interacting with the Kachin leaders during his visit. Reportedly, during the visit, ambassador Hong Liang met with chairman of the Kachin State Democracy Party (KSDP) Manam Tu Ja, chairman of the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State (UDP-KS) U Hkyet Hting Nan, chairman of the Kachin Democracy Party (KDP) Gumgrawng Awng Hkam, chairman of the Lisu National Development Party U Si Phar Lar Lu (U Shwe Minn), chairman of the Shan Ethnic Affairs Society (Northern Myanmar) U Sai San Wae and chairman of the Kachin Baptist Convention Hkalam Samson. According to the The Irrawaddy report on January 9, when the Chinese ambassador met Gumgrawng Awng Hkam and Rev. Hkalam Samson respectively at Palm Spring Hotel in Myitkyina, he warned them not to be so cordial and friendly with western diplomats, otherwise they would face serious consequences. Both claimed that the ambassador briefed them in a bossy manner, warning them not to oppose Chinese projects in Kachin State, including the controversial Myitsone hydro-power project. The meeting with the Chinese ambassador came after the US and UK ambassadors visited Kachin State. During their meetings in Myitkyina with Kachin political leaders and other prominent members of the Kachin community, both ambassadors discussed the peace process, the safe return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), promotion of education and health and free and fair elections. Both Gumgrawng Awng Hkam and Rev. Hkalam Samson attended those meetings. Consequently, Kachin politicians invited the ambassadors to open liaison offices in Myitkyina in order to promote relations..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group"
2019-01-16
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Seven years after it was suspended, the Chinese developer of the Myitsone Dam is ramping up efforts to lobby residents amid a strengthening of China-Myanmar relations.
Description: "MUNG RA stands on stage, looking out over the thousands of anti-dam protesters who have come to the confluence where the Ayeyarwady River originates on October 1 to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the suspension of the Myitsone Dam. At the edge of the crowd are English signs with the words “No Dam” and “Free Streaming the Ayeyarwady”. Many people in the audience have pinned badges to their clothing with anti-dam messages. Mung Ra waves a book: Answering Questions on the Extraction of Hydroelectricity from the Ayeyarwady Myitsone, Upper Reaches and River Valley. Published by the dam’s investor, China’s State Power Investment Corporation, it includes a wide range of information on the series of dams the company wants to build on the Ayeyarwady and its tributaries, the N’mai and the Mali rivers, including the structure and potential environmental impact of these dams, and the financial and other benefits for Myanmar. It also explains the company’s investment in the project to date, including the support it has provided to communities displaced by the 6,000 megawatt Myitsone dam project. “The book mentions our resettlement and the health and livelihood assistance [the company gave] but it’s just full of fake information. We never received this [assistance] in the past and we are not receiving it now,” Mung Ra tells the crowd. Mung Ra should know. Originally a resident of Daung Bum, a village located near Myitsone, in 2009 he was forced to move with his family to Maliyang, one of two model villages build by SPIC (then known as China Power Investment Corporation) to house people displaced to make room for the mega-dam, which would flood an area the size of Singapore..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2018-11-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "After eight years collecting dust on the planning shelves and also at the confluence of the Mali and N’mai Rivers in upper Burma, the Chinese are seeking to revive the Myitsone Dam, which has been stalled since 2011 after then-President Thein Sein, in an unprecedented about-turn, put it on hold amid massive protest. In late 2009, as Asia Sentinel reported, a team of 80 Burmese and Chinese scientists and environmentalists conducted a 945-page environmental impact study of the Myitsone Dam for China Power Investment itself and concluded that the dam should never be built. Although the Chinese government ignored the recommendations of its own scientists, the Burma Rivers Network, which opposes the dam, obtained a copy of the assessment and made it public. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Electric Power-1 said it had done its own environmental assessment and the dam would be built regardless. The Myitsone dam was opposed by a wide range of environmentalists, social activists, artists and others including Aung San Suu Kyi, who requested a review of the facility earlier this year. Thousands of people have been displaced from its catchment area, which is said to be as big as the island of Singapore. Beijing nonetheless sees Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis as a perfect opportunity to rekindle the dam, which would displace thousands of local people in Kachin State and flood a vast area of significant biodiversity and natural resources..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Asia Sentinel"
2019-08-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "In late April, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi visited Beijing to take part in the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. There China and Myanmar signed three bilateral cooperation agreements, discussed the extensive promotion of their relations and conducted constructive consultations on Myanmar's peace process and stability in the border areas. However, no agreement was reached on the Myitsone dam project, despite public fears in Myanmar that construction of the dam, in limbo since 2011, would soon be revived. For weeks leading up to the forum, the Myitsone controversy had dominated local media headlines and spurred protests. On February 7, about 10,000 Kachin locals held a rally in the state capital of Myitkyina to oppose the Myitsone project they said would devastate the environment and displace families. On April 1, about 200 anti-Myitsone environmental activists and writers held a meeting in Yangon and established a national committee to oppose it..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post"
2019-05-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Beijing warns that investment will halt unless Myitsone Dam project is restarted
Description: "While Aung San Suu Kyi's government has a strained relationship with the West over its handling of the Rohingya crisis, China has shielded Myanmar from international pressure and punitive action from the U.N. Security Council. Beijing is now pressing Myanmar to revive the Myitsone Dam project, which has been suspended for seven years, in exchange for its diplomatic protection. Work on the US$3.6 billion project in Kachin State started in 2008 but the military-backed government of then-president Thein Sein suspended its construction in September 2011 following protests and widespread environmental concerns. The issue became a major thorn in relations between the countries as China agitated for resuming work. The hydroelectric dam would be the 15th largest in the world. The 6,000 megawatts of electricity it would produce is more than Myanmar's entire power grid produces at present. However, the majority would be used by China despite Myanmar being chronically short of power. Renewed Chinese pressure came when Chinese ambassador Hong Liang visited Kachin in December and met with political parties and social organizations..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "UCAnews"
2019-01-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Myitsone Dam; Kachin; Myanmar; development; conflict; China
Topic: Myitsone Dam; Kachin; Myanmar; development; conflict; China
Description: "Myanmar has seen numerous violent uprising in recent decades (Smith, 2007; Sadan, 2016). Ceasefire agreements have been struck with a number of armed actors but these have been focused on economic development, rather than on resolving political grievances. The underlying notion guiding this strategy has been that weak economic development rather than poor governance or lack of political inclusion lies at the heart of local opposition (Brenner, 2017). Incentivised by the plentiful natural resources present in conflict-affected, minority-ethnic dominated states, Chinese ventures have dominated investments in these areas. One of the more spectacular infrastructure projects funded by a Chinese company is the Myitsone Dam in Kachin State, on which work was suspended in 2011 following public protest (Kiik, 2016b; Kirchherr, Charles and Walton, 2017)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "UI Paper"
2019-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Size: 2.06 MB
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Sub-title: While national attention remains focused on the Myitsone dam, Frontier visits one of the six other mega-dams north of the Ayeyarwady River confluence that could resume if conflict between the Tatmadaw and Kachin Independence Organisation is resolved.
Description: "This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The fuel station is bigger and more modern than anything I’ve seen in Kachin State. It’s also completely abandoned. A fuel nozzle lies on the cracked, overgrown concrete, its hose trailing across the ground to a dispenser that has been reduced to a skeleton. Above the dispensers is a steel frame that would once have held up a roof. The adjacent concrete office is a mess of rubbish and broken glass. Gaping doorways let in the dull monsoon light. The fuel station was built to supply construction vehicles on the 3,400-megawatt Chipwi hydropower project on the N’Mai River. The dam would be the second largest in a cascade of seven that a Chinese-Myanmar joint venture, Upstream Ayeyawady Confluence Basin Hydropower Co Ltd, plans to build on the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady River in Kachin State. Work began in December 2010 with a targeted completion date of 2020. Just six months later, fighting erupted between the Kachin Independence Organisation and the Tatmadaw, ending a 17-year ceasefire. In April 2012, soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army, the KIO’s armed wing, pushed into the area of the dam project and captured it from a Tatmadaw-aligned Border Guard Force. Fearing for their lives, hundreds of Chinese workers fled for safety in nearby Chipwi town, and the developer was forced to suspend work..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-12
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Description: "Just a few months before 2012 by-elections, a group of concerned citizens worried about the fate of Myitsone gathered together at a location overlooking the confluence of three rivers in Myitkyina, Kachin State. A man walked to a podium with the assistance of a friend and said, with tears in his eyes, that the Ayeyarawady River was the lifeline of the whole of Myanmar and it’s endangered and near extinct flora and fauna would be diminished forever if and when the planned Myitsone hydropower dam was built there. The man was U Ohn an eminent environmentalist who loves his country. Thanks to public awareness campaigns launched by environmentalists, protest campaigns launched by CSOs, and media coverage about the dangers of the dam, protests against it construction were launched. The Myitsone dam project consists of building seven dams with the main dam at the confluence (Myitsone) of the Maykha and Malikha Rivers, five more dams on Maykha and a dam on Malikha Rivers will also be built for power generation. The estimated installed capacity of the project is 21,600 MW. According to 2015 statistics, Myanmar is currently generating just over 5,000 MW in the entire country so the installed capacity of the Myitsone dam will be over four times that of total power generation in the country. The then military regime and China Power Investment Corporation signed a MoU to build the dam in 2006. After completion, 90% of the power generated will be sold to China and Myanmar will receive the remaining 10%. At that time, the deafening sounds of protest against Myitsone and calls for ‘Save the Irrawaddy’ echoed throughout the entire country. As a result, in 2012, President Thein Sein made the stunning announcement that the project would be suspended during his five-year tenure and he won the hearts of the people..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Mekong Eye" via Mizzima
2016-07-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: In 2011, construction work on a massive dam project in Myanmar's restive Kachin state was halted after large protests. China is now lobbying hard for the work to resume, but as BBC News Burmese's Soe Soe Htoon found, local people are still not convinced t
Description: ""I always cry every time I talk about the dam," says Jar Lie. Eight years ago, she was forced to abandon her 40 acres of farmland and move to a resettlement village in Aung Myin Tha, around six miles (nine kilometres) away. Her land was to be flooded by the vast reservoir created by the $3.6bn (£2.8bn) Chinese-financed Myitsone dam, at the source of the Irrawaddy river. Her new village has a market, a hospital, sealed roads and a school, all provided by the company building the dam, Beijing's State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC). But Jar Lie says that without farming land, life here is very difficult. "We could eat what we grew before; there was no need to buy anything. Here without land we can't do anything; we don't know how to earn money. I am very sick here." The dam was due to be completed this year - but so far work has barely begun, and the project has exposed simmering tensions over the balance of power between China and the country it often refers to as its younger brother. The Myitsone was to be the largest of seven dams SPIC is promising to build in the region, to provide quickly-developing Myanmar with much-needed electricity. By some estimates, the project would by itself generate more energy than the entire country produces now. The full contract the former military government signed with SPIC has never been publicly released. But in a rare interview in May, with BBC News Burmese, the former deputy minister of Myanmar's state power company, U Maw Thar Htwe, confirmed the most provocative part of the deal - that 90% of the electricity the dam generated would go back over the border to China. According to U Maw Thar Htwe, the government will get a 10% stake in the dam but will only see a return on its investment two decades after it starts operations..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: BBC News
2019-07-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: " Environmentalists, scientists, writers and monks called for the cancellation of the Myitsone dam at a meeting in Yangon on Monday, at which a committee was formed to fight for the termination of the US$3.6 billion, China-backed project. The meeting came amid pressure from Beijing for work to resume on the dam and followed State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s March 20 comment that the 6,000MW project needed to be considered from “a wider perspective”. Work on the dam, on the Ayeyarwady River about 42 kilometres upstream from the Kachin State capital Myitkyina, was suspended by President U Thein Sein in September 2011 amid escalating and emotionally charged protests against the project. A joint venture between China’s State Power Investment Corporation and a Myanmar conglomerate, Asia World, began work on the dam in 2009 under a memorandum of understand signed by the ruling military junta and the Chinese government three years earlier. An agreement provided for most of the power generated by the massive dam, which would inundate an area as big as Singapore and displace thousands of people, to be exported to China. Speakers at the April 1 meeting included retired government meteorologist and founder of Myanmar Climate Change Watch, Dr Tun Lwin, 71, who challenged one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s March 20 comments about the project. The State Counsellor was quoted as saying that if her National League for Democracy government broke promises made by a previous administration, it would lose credibility with investors. Tun Lwin said there were examples of governments not keeping promises for the sake of their people and the national interest, citing the decision by the Malaysian government to cancel China-backed infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars. “I want the government to listen to the people and cancel the Myitsone project,” he said. “Otherwise I believe the future will not be pleasant.” In his speech Tun Lwin said he did not support the Myitsone dam because the Ayeyarwady River was more important than Myanmar itself. Global warming was already leading to water shortages, he said, and blocking the flow of the river would endanger the country’s future access to water. The former director-general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology also expressed regret that his warnings about the impact of climate change on Myanmar were largely ignored. “Sadly, no one has listened enough, especially government officials. This is the fate of our country,” said Tun Lwin, adding that the average temperature in Myanmar had risen by about 1.4 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-04-02
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "China’s hurry to revive the Myitsone dam projects has renewed concerns among ethnic Kachin and Myanmar’s people. Last week thousands of people in Kachin state protested, calling once again for a permanent stop to the projects. This latest demonstration follows several discussions about the resumption of the projects. For example, at an investment summit in Naypyitaw on 29 Jan, U Thaung Tun, the minister for investment and foreign economic relations, said the government wants to find a solution for the projects because the government values its relationship with China. So far, none of the leaders has given a clear answer to the public concerning the projects. When meeting with religious leaders and representatives from ethnic groups on the Kachin State Day on 10 Jan, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not give a specific answer on whether Myanmar will continue the projects. Likewise, the commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing also did not give a clear answer on whether the project would be stopped when a group of religious leaders met him in Myitkyina on 5 February. Then who can give the answer that people deserve? The answer is China. There are threefold things that China should do. First, China should publicly reveal the contract of the Myitsone dam projects which was signed with the previous military regime in 2006. In late January, Dr Zaw Myint Maung – Vice Chairman of NLD party and Chief Minister of Mandalay region said ‘we do not know the detailed information of the contract.” It implies that even some leaders do not know the information written on the contract. Thus, China should now reveal detailed information about the contract. Second, China should disclose the full list of people, if any, who have allegedly taken bribes from China Power Investment Corporation (CPI). Unsubstantiated rumours have spread that some prominent leaders, religious leaders, high officials from the Border Guard Force (BGF) and militia have received bribes. Last but not least, China should heed the voices of Myanmar’s citizens. It is understandable that China wants to push the project forward in order to help meet the power demands of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). However, China should not neglect people, particularly those who were forced to relocate due to the dam project in the Myitsone. Their request is simple: permanently stopping the project. Furthermore, China should respect the Pawkhpaw – brotherhood – relation with Myanmar, as they have many more investment projects across the country..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "BNI Multimedia Group" via Mizzima
2019-02-18
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "In a rare concession to public pressure, Myanmar’s government on Friday ordered the suspension of a controversial hydroelectric project financed and led by a state-owned Chinese company. The Myitsone dam project would have been the first to span the Irrawaddy River, the largest waterway in Myanmar, and was a showcase project for the previous military government. The halt in construction was a victory for dissidents in a country with a long history of stifling opposition. A number of prominent people inside Myanmar, including writers, scientists and the Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had opposed the project. The government’s announcement underscores the nascent stirrings of democracy in Myanmar, also known as Burma, after a nominally civilian government took control from a military junta in March. The dam’s suspension was a blow to China, long considered a benefactor to the government in Myanmar. China Power Investment, a state-run Chinese company, was leading the construction of the project, which would have delivered electricity to southern China. It is unclear how the suspension will affect six other Chinese-led hydroelectric projects in northern Myanmar..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The New York Times"
2011-09-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-09
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Sub-title: The Myanmar government, led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), has agreed with China to seek a solution to the controversial Myitsone dam project that will satisfy both sides, outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Hong Liang said on Tuesday.
Description: "“We are seriously concerned about the project. We agreed with the Myanmar government to find a solution that will not harm bilateral relations,” he said. “I firmly believe our relations will be better if we can solve this problem.” Hong is set to leave his post at the end of the month. On Tuesday, he invited a select group of local journalists for a briefing at his residence. The US$3.6 billion, 6000MW Myitsone dam in Kachin State is funded by China’s state-owned State Power Investment Corporation. Its construction was suspended by former president U Thein Sein in 2011 after widespread protests over social and environmental concerns. People are wondering about the future of the project, as State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is under pressure from China to make a decision. The State Counsellor has not revealed the details of the talks with China on the dam but she has promised to disclose any deal they reach. The uncertainty has triggered speculation. Some say the dam would be re-sized or delayed until after the 2020 general election. Others say it would be stopped completely. “No need to worry about Myitsone,” Hong said. “When the results (of the negotiations) come out, cooperation between Myanmar and China will move forward”. Hong admitted that the suspension of the project has been an obstacle to greater economic cooperation between China and Myanmar. He added that China suffered a big loss due to the suspension of the project for the past eight years. He expressed concern that some groups are using the impasse over the project to advance their political interests. “A group is spreading misinformation about the Myitsone project, as they want to disturb Myanmar’s democratic reform process and Myanmar-China bilateral relations,” Hong said, without elaborating..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
2019-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "A talk on the complete cancellation of much-criticized Myitsone Dam project was held at the Former Political Prisoners Society (FPPS) office in Yangon yesterday. About 50 political activists from Yangon, Mandalay, Ayeyawady, Kayin and Mon attended the talk. "At the talk, the agreement was reached on the total cancellation of Myitsone Dam project and the formation of the nationwide committee by calling the nationwide conference," said Dr. Nyo Nyo Thin, the founder of Yangon Watch. Most of those who attend the talk have a common view that the total cancellation of dam project is the best for the future of our citizens. The nationwide committee will emerge through the nationwide conference. After that, we will organize various forms of campaigns nationwide, she added. "Recent days, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's words show a sign of resuming the suspended Myitsone dam project. So we are worrying. I think the government will resume the project. The public are totally against the project. Political activists decided to call a meeting," she continued. In a public meeting in Pyay, Bagon Region on March 14, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said the public should think broadly about the large-scale projects including the Myitson project. They should view these projects from political, economic, social and environmental conservation points of view. It will be wrong if they will view them from the single point of view. Economy and politics are interrelated. We need to keep our promise for the country's dignity and maintain the trust of the international community. The government cannot turn a blind eye to some projects done by the previous government. Lack of trust by international community may tarnish the image of our country. The government will do it in an accountable manner. The government will explain the reason why the decision is made. Chinese government's delegates including the Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar are trying every possible ways to resume the Myitsone Dam project suspended by the previous government in 2011..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Water Portal via "Eleven Myanmar"
2019-03-17
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Volume ll: Ayeyarwady Futures
Description: "WWF Myanmar, through the River in the Economy project, brought together people from diverse backgrounds, to imagine what the future of the Ayeyarwady Basin could look like. Some futures look good, some futures look bad. Some futures are good for a few, other futures are disastrous for the ecosystems that keep us alive and resilient. WWF Myanmar undertook this process to better understand the drivers of change that help or hinder our progress towards an equitably beneficial future. By imagining the possible directions the future could take, we can imagine what sort of actions we need to take. This is to make sure we collectively follow the future that we want, and not the future that we do not want. This report has been developed from the culmination of workshops in 2017 and 2018, collecting the perspectives of government, civil society, academia and business in the Ayeyarwady Basin, including the Delta, Middle Basin, Lower Basin and Chindwin Basin. 103 participants attended these workshops. They represented: INTRODUCTION This is the second volume of a two-part series of reports highlighting perspectives of diverse stakeholder across the Ayeyarwady Basin. The first workshops were centred on creating a common understanding of the Ayeyarwady River Basin and the risks and opportunities associated with living in the basin. The second series of workshops were then focused on the future, and what the possible development pathways in the future may look like..."
Source/publisher: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
2018-08-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 4.11 MB
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Sub-title: VOLUME 1: RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF PEOPLE LIVING AND WORKING IN THE BASIN
Description: "The Ayeyarwady is at the heart of many activities in Myanmar. In each of its sub basins, a unique set of needs and risks is associated with the river. As part of the WWF-funded Ayeyarwady River in the Economy Project, a series of workshops were held in each of these sub basins (upper, Chindwin, middle, lower and delta) to identify the goods and services provided by the river, but also to identify how these demands are putting the river at risk, and ultimately the sectors themselves, which depend on a healthy Ayeyarwady. 30 participants attended each workshop. They represented a diversity of backgrounds; academia, government, private sector and civil society. They identified the goods and services provided to their sub basins that depend on their stretch of river. These include provisioning services such as water for irrIgation, regulating services such as flood recession ponds for fish spawning, supporting services such as safe habitats for biodiversity, and cultural services for tourism, as well as spiritual sites along the basin. They were also asked to identify how these sectors providing goods and services are impacting upon the river system, creating risks for the stretch of river in their region. The top risks identified in each sub-basin are shown in the following figure. These include flooding, mining, bank erosion, pollution, sedimentation, navigation challenges, river morphology changes, and fish species degradation. In addition to the individual risks identified within each localized sub-basin, there are also interlinked risks from up to downstream. For instance, increased mining or deforestation in the upper catchment may shift the sediment dynamics downstream, causing bank erosion or sedimentation. As the Ayeyarwady flows through the country, hydropower dams trap sediment and may reduce the valuable ecosystem services provided to flood recession agriculture in its lower stretches. Because of this sedimentation the river widens and becomes more shallow, causing significant challenges for boats navigating the waters. The use of pesticides and fertilizers upstream also causes pollution for those using the river downstream. These are just a few of the ways that risks are transported geographically throughout the entire river basin. It is of paramount importance that economic development plans taking place, especially in the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady and its tributaries, take into account their impacts on the users downstream. This includes not only water availability and quality, but also the timing of flows and sediment dynamics. For instance, the flooding risks identified by stakeholders in the lower basin may be due to a sediment deficit in the upper reaches. This in turn limits the flow of sediment to the delta, contributing to its sinking. The lack of sediment may be due to a number of factors including regulation of flows from dams, the trapping of actual sediment from dams or perhaps the extraction of sediment for the construction sector. Individually these impacts may be small, but cumulatively they may result in a vulnerable delta, the home of the majority of Myanmar’s population, infrastructure, and fish and rice production..."
Source/publisher: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
2018-05-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-07-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 1.97 MB
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Description: "A statement from the Chinese government on Sunday has renewed concerns among ethnic Kachin over the stalled Myitsone dam project. In the statement, the Chinese Embassy in Yangon claimed that Kachin political leaders and social organizations had a “positive attitude” toward the dam. It added that “local people of Kachin State do not oppose the Myitsone hydropower project; it is some individuals and social organizations from outside that oppose the project.” Three Kachin political parties and community leader Rev. Hkalam Samson immediately issued a statement of their own to insist that China’s claims were false and misleading. It is obvious that the people of Myanmar, and the Kachin in particular, have been opposed to the Myitsone dam projects even before it forced thousands of Kachin villagers to relocate. Myitsone is hardly China’s only planned dam in Myanmar. It also hopes to build dams in Lasa on the Mali River and in Khaunglanghpu, Phizaw, Lakin and Pashe on the Nmai River. A dam on the Nmai in Chiphwi is already finished..."
Creator/author: JOE KUMBUN
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-01-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Had its original construction schedule not been derailed by controversy and public condemnation, leading to its suspension in 2011, the Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam hydropower project near the source of the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State would be operational by now as scheduled. It has been eight years since the suspension. Currently, the project site on the bank of the river is mostly deserted. When it was launched on Dec. 21, 2009, the Myanmar Investment Commission estimated total investment in Myitsone Dam would amount to US$4.3 billion (6.54 trillion kyats). The project was in the middle of construction when it was halted in September 2011. Before the suspension, resettlement at the dam site was finished, and site formation, water supply, electricity and transportation facilities had commenced, according to its Chinese developer, State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), which was known as China Power Investment (CPI) until 2015. Despite recent pressure from China to resume the dam’s construction, anti-dam sentiment is still on the rise among the public. Recently, prominent civil society leaders, environmentalists, writers and artists announced that they would launch a one-dollar campaign to collect money from the public to compensate China in exchange for scrapping the project. The campaign clearly reflects how unpopular the project is among Myanmar people. They don’t like it because the project near the confluence of the Maykha and Malikha rivers, which gives rise to the Irrawaddy River, would destroy the country’s lifeline waterway, which runs through the country from north to south before emptying into the Andaman Sea. For Myanmar people, the river is the source of their identity because the Irrawaddy valley is the cradle of Myanmar civilization. Furthermore, they fear the dam would disrupt the flow of sediment along river, harming agricultural livelihoods. Plus, the dam site is reportedly seismically unstable; a collapse would have the potential to flood an area twice the size of Singapore. It’s interesting to note how such a controversial mega project came into existence. The following is a brief flashback summarizing the development of the Myitsone Dam issue and identifying those involved in the project’s inception at a time when Myanmar was under military rule. Beginnings It all started with the Ministry of Electrical Power’s hydropower project master plan for the upstream Irrawaddy River basin in Kachin State in late 2005. The plan was initially developed with Yunnan Machinery (Equipment) Export & Import Company (YMEC) and Kunming Hydropower Institute of Design. The plan was scrapped when the ministry was reformed in May of the following year as the Ministry of Electric Power-1 (MOEP-1) for generating electrical power and the Ministry of Electric Power-2 for distribution..."
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-04-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-30
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Ja Hkawn still remembers the day all the residents of a nearby village were forcibly driven across the river by the local authorities. It was in late May 2010. The villagers of Mali Zup were given just three days to pack their belongings. She saw the villagers carrying their possessions on their shoulders and rounding up their livestock. As they headed to their “new place” across the river, their footsteps were heavy. Some shed tears as they left. In April of the following year, Ja Hkawn, who was then a resident of Tang Hpre village, faced the same fate as her Mali Zup neighbors. The whole village was forced to move to a new place—Aung Myin Tha, 8 miles to the south. The reason for the forced relocations: to make way for a mega-dam to be built by China Power Investment Corporation (CPI), now known as State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC). “I’ve never liked it here—I long to go back to my village,” Ja Hkawn said. She misses her old village located at the confluence of the May Kha and Mali Kha rivers; life is hard in Aung Myin Tha, as the new location is not arable, but built on rocky red soil. Once a landowner with several acres on which she grew seasonal vegetables, the 53-year-old Kachin woman now—like many others—scratches out a living as a vendor with the support of local NGOs, selling organic soap, local snacks and T-shirts emblazoned with the slogans “No Dam” and “Long Live Irrawaddy” to tourists in Myitsone. One of Kachin State’s major landmarks, and a must-see for visitors to the area, Myitsone is the point at which the confluence of the May Kha and Mali Kha rivers gives rise to Myanmar’s lifeline, The Irrawaddy River. The confluence is recognized by the Organization for World Wildlife Conservation as a place of biodiversity and natural heritage. During a recent visit there, The Irrawaddy witnessed a busload of Chinese tourists visiting the area..."
Creator/author: Nan Lwin
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-03-29
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Controversy continues over a suspended mega-dam project, backed by China, on the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State. The social and environmental consequences of the proposed project cast a shadow not only over the local Kachin population but over all the nationalities of Myanmar. Public awareness is growing why protecting the Irrawaddy is of national importance. I am from Myitkyina, a Kachin, born and bred in the town just 27 miles downstream from where the Mali and N’Mai Rivers merge to form the great Irrawaddy, the life blood of our nation. Myitsone, the confluence site, also has added significance for us Kachins: it is the heartland of our cultural identity. So it would not be a stretch to say that the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) is part of my life, just as it is for all who call Myanmar their home. To have the Irrawaddy flow freely for all time is a cause very dear to my heart. And putting my money where my mouth is, I used the US$ 50,000 I received from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation as seed money to establish the non-profit organisation Airavati with a few like-minded friends in 2014. Airavati's major work entails preserving the environment, culture and way of life of the diverse communities that flourish along the Irrawaddy's path – from its watersheds in the upper reaches of Kachin State to the delta region in Myanmar’s south. The Irrawaddy is a precious national heritage. From time immemorial, the Bamar and other ethnic nationalities have lived and thrived along its riverbanks. Not only is it an amazing natural ecosystem, it is also an icon of our cultural and national identity. If we do not safeguard this treasure, we will suffer from its devastating loss, just as our neighbors to our immediate east did when the Chinese dammed the Mekong River within their borders. The impact on downstream countries like Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam has been disastrous and irreversible. Protecting the Irrawaddy, therefore, is of national importance as the whole country's fate and existence depend upon it. Building a dam near the confluence site, or the Myitsone Dam Project as it is called, poses irreparable cultural, ecological and economic damage to the nation. Furthermore, the existential threat posed by the Myitsone Dam on communities within the reservoir inundation areas and those downstream is enormous, given that they are in an earthquake-prone zone. In the meantime, communities in the confluence area have been forced to relocate, living in limbo in places where they cannot engage in their traditional livelihoods. Moreover, the lack of transparency and consultation with communities whose lives would be directly impacted have given rise to passionate opposition against the project, not just by the Kachin people but by all Myanmar nationals who love and cherish the Irrawaddy for practical as well as sentimental reasons. We the peoples of Myanmar, with roots in different parts of the country, may differ in ethnicity, language and faith systems, but when it comes to saving the Irrawaddy, we are of one mind. This unity of purpose will empower us as we harness it in taking steps to put a stop to a project that will do irreparable harm to our beloved Irrawaddy. If we, each and every one of us Myanmar citizens, dig deep into our pockets and collectively make one-time or multiple-time one dollar donations, we will surely reach the goal of repaying the debt incurred when the previous government signed on to an ill-conceived, Chinese-funded mega project that will bring no benefit to Myanmar nationals..."
Creator/author: Lahpai Seng Raw
Source/publisher: Transnational Institute (TNI)
2019-05-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-05-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "On January 12th, the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Myanmar issued a statement warning Myanmar that if it failed to resolve the dispute over the stalled Myitsone Hydropower Dam project in Myanmar’s northern state of Kachin, “confidence of Chinese entrepreneurs in investing in Myanmar” would be “seriously hurt” (Global Times, February 21). A fortnight prior to this statement, the PRC Ambassador to Myanmar, Hong Liang, visited the Kachin capital of Myitkyina, where he met local Kachin groups and religious leaders to win their support for revival of the controversial Chinese-backed dam project. Hong reportedly warned them against opposing Chinese projects, including the Myitsone project, in the Kachin state (The Irrawaddy, January 9). PRC officials have reportedly been visiting the homes of Kachin villagers to canvass support for the project (The Irrawaddy, September 13, 2018). The $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project is a Sino-Myanmar joint venture: Myanmar’s Ministry of Electric Power and a domestic conglomerate, Asia World, as well as the PRC’s state-run China Power Investment Corporation, signed a memorandum of understanding in 2006; work on the project began subsequently in December 2009. In September 2011, amid protests over the Myitsone Dam’s social and environmental costs, Myanmar’s then-President Thein Sein announced the suspension of the project, citing the “will of the people” (Mizzima, September 30, 2011). Since coming to power in January 2016, Myanmar’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) has avoided making a decision on the project’s future. But with State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi due to meet Chinese leaders on the sidelines of the upcoming Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, where the Myitsone project is bound to come up for discussion, the NLD government will need to decide the fate of the project before Suu Kyi leaves for Beijing (The Irrawaddy, April 5). This will not be an easy decision, as the government is caught between mounting pressure from the PRC and calls from the people of Myanmar to cancel the project..."
Creator/author: Sudha Ramachandran
Source/publisher: The Jamestown Foundation
2019-04-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.59 MB
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Description: ''Public opposition to the controversial Myitsone Dam project is gaining momentum ahead of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s upcoming visit to China. The State Counselor will meet President Xi Jinping when China holds the second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) summit this month. In the latest show of popular opposition to China’s proposed dam, prominent Myanmar environmentalists, writers and civil society leaders formed a national committee to oppose the suspended project, and warned the government of more resistance if it is revived. The Myitsone project is expected to be one of the issues on the table for discussion. The Myanmar public wants her to say no to the massive hydropower plan, but so far her statements on it have been vague. But saying yes to the project would be political suicide for the government and for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself. In 2018, speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Papua New Guinea, Xi announced that “China will work with all countries involved with the BRI according to the principle of consultation and collaboration for shared benefits”. He vowed the initiative would incorporate high standards, “so that it will deliver quality outcomes and create even greater development opportunities for the people in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.” But anti-China sentiment and demand for a critical debate on the BRI are growing in Myanmar. Chinese officials now acknowledge the China-funded Myitsone project in Kachin State is part of the BRI project, and Beijing has recently stepped up pressure on Myanmar to accept the project. The Chinese ambassador, as well as other officials and representatives of China’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), have traveled to Kachin State to meet local groups in an effort to persuade them to say yes to the project. However, public emotion there is running high, and a sense of anger toward China is spreading to the rest of Myanmar...''
Creator/author: Aung Zaw
Source/publisher: The Irrawaddy
2019-04-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''China’s increasing pressure over the suspended Myitsone dam in ethnic Kachin state has highlighted Myanmar’s dilemma in choosing between environmental protection and safeguarding the great Irrawaddy River, and its political and economic dependence on Beijing. The $3.6 billion dam, ranked as one of the biggest hydropower projects in the region, was suspended by former President Thein Sein in 2011, causing shock and consternation to Beijing’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC), the main investor in the controversial dam. It is a relatively rare event for a massive Chinese overseas dam project to be blocked by a popular protest. The world’s number one dam builder, China, by one count, has a portfolio of 334 hydropower projects in 74 countries, and only a few have been suspended or cancelled as a result of public opposition. In Myanmar, the protests united all ethnic groups living along the river and nationwide...''
Creator/author: Tom Fawthrop
Source/publisher: The Diplomat
2019-03-11
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: ''A mid increased pressure from China to resume construction of the controversial Myitsone hydropower dam in the far north of Myanmar, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi has said the public should think about the project “from a wider perspective,” Myanmar website The Irrawaddy reported on March 14. The project, a joint venture with Chinese interests, was suspended in 2011 by then president Thein Sein amid widespread concern over the dam’s social and environmental impacts. Anti-Chinese demonstrations were also held in many towns in Myanmar. Suu Kyi did not say whether the project should be scrapped or continued and the uncertainty has led to renewed protests...''
Creator/author: Bertil Lintner
Source/publisher: Asia Times
2019-02-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "In Southeast Myanmar, electrification rates are among the lowest in the country, particularly in rural, conflict-affected areas near the border of Thailand. Myanmar?s ambitious National Electrification Plan (NEP) aims to provide electricity access to all Myanmar households by 2030. In response to the NEP and other national development goals, Myanmar?s Energy Master Plan (MEMP) projects electricity demand to rise by 10 percent annually through 2030. To meet future demands, Myanmar must expand its energy infrastructure. Currently, hydropower comprises two-thirds of Myanmar?s electricity generation capacity. Both the MEMP and alternative visions of electricity infrastructure development in Myanmar rely on hydropower as a key source of electricity through 2050, and include provisions for the export of hydropower to neighboring countries..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group
2018-07-10
Date of entry/update: 2018-08-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
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Description: In January 2016, Burma?s state media reported that Naypyidaw was proceeding with four new hydropower dams on the Namtu (Myitnge or Dokhtawaddy) River, three of which are in conflict areas of Shan State. These new dams, together with the existing Yeywa dam, will form a cascade blocking half the entire length of the river. The most advanced of the new dams is the Upper Yeywa Dam in Nawngkhio township, started by Burma?s military regime in 2008, and slated for completion in 2018. The planned reservoir will stretch for over 60 kilometers, entirely submerging a large Shan village of nearly 500 residents, called Ta Long, and possibly submerging part of Hsipaw town. Ta Long (meaning ?large harbor”) is a prosperous community, renowned in northern Shan State for its organic oranges and pomelos, grown along the riverbank. Ancient stupas in the village are hundreds of years old. Ta Long villagers were neither informed nor consulted before the dam began. An Environment and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) was carried out for the dam only in 2014, six years after the dam had begun. During the ESIA, the villagers stated clearly that they were not willing to move. Despite this, dam-building has continued, with funding from China, and with the involvement of Chinese, Japanese, German and Swiss companies. A diversion tunnel has been completed, and construction of the main dam wall was beginning in early 2016. The other planned dams on the Namtu in Shan State -- the Middle Yeywa Dam being developed by Norway?s state-owned SN Power in Nawng Khio township, and the Namtu Dam in Hsipaw township -- are also proceeding without transparency, and without the informed consent of impacted villagers. This cascade of dams will have serious impacts on the ecology of the river. Disruption of fish spawning and migration patterns are likely to negatively impact the rich fish stocks upon which thousands of Hsipaw villagers rely. Toxins from mining upstream are also likely to build up in the reservoirs, endangering aquatic life and the health of those relying on the river. Methane emitted from rotting vegetation in the reservoirs will also contribute to global warming. Another serious concern for villagers living below the planned Namtu Dam in Hsipaw will be the unpredictable fluctuations in water level due to the operation of the dam, and risk of sudden surges causing accidents along the river bank. If there is heavy rainfall, large amounts of water may have to be released, causing flooding downstream. Even more worrying is the possibility of dam breakage, due to pressure from abnormally heavy rainfall, landslides or earthquakes. The Middle Yeywa dam is being planned over the Kyaukkyan fault line, the centre of the biggest earthquake in Burma?s history in 1912, measuring about 8 on the Richter scale. This is of great concern, as the weight of dam reservoirs near fault lines is known to trigger earthquakes. Dam breakage would release a deadly tsunami, destroying any lower dams and also threatening countless communities in the lower plains. Finally, it is highly unwise for Naypyidaw to be pushing through these risky, untransparent dam projects in active conflict zones. Since early 2016, fighting has intensified in Shan townships where these dams are planned. With Naypyidaw?s monopoly over natural resources being a key driver of the ethnic conflict, forging ahead with damaging hydropower projects over the heads of local ethnic communities will only fuel resentment and exacerbate the conflict. We therefore urge the new NLD-led government to immediately halt all plans to build new dams on the Namtu River, including the Upper Yeywa dam. Only when there is a negotiated federal settlement to the ethnic conflict, bringing genuine nationwide peace and decentralized natural resource management, should options for future hydropower development along the Namtu river be considered. Any future plans for hydropower development on the Namtu River must involve a transparent strategic impact assessment along the entire river, and there must be Free Prior and Informed Consent of affected indigenous communities.
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation, Shan State Farmers? Network, Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization
2016-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.92 MB
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Description: ၂၀၁၆ ခုနှစ်ဇန်နဝါရီလတွင် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ သတင်းဌာနမှသတင်းထဲတွင် နေပြည်တော်သည် ရေကာတာ ရေအားလျှပ်စစ်စီမံကိန်း ၄ ခု ကို နမ္မတူ( မြစ်ငယ် (သို့) ဒုဋ္ဌဝတီ )မြစ်ပေါ်တွင် တည်ဆောက်ရန်စီစဉ်လျှက်ရှိကြောင်း၊ ၎င်းအနက် ရေကာတာ (၃)ခုသည် ယခု ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် ပဋိပက္ခ ဖြစ်ရာနေရာအတွင်းတွင်ဖြစ်နေသည်။ ၎င်းရေကာတာသစ်များ နှင့် ရဲရွာရေကာတာတို့သည် မြစ်ကြောင်းတခုလုံး၏ထက်ဝက်ကိုပိတ်ဆို့လိုက်ရမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ဆောက်လုပ်ဆဲအထက်ရဲရွာရေကာတာသည်နောင်ချိုမြို့နယ်တွင်ရှိပြီးဗမာစစ်အစိုး ရက၂၀၀၈ခုနှစ်မှစ၍တည်ဆောက်ခဲ့သည်၊၂၀၁၈ခုနှစ်တွင်ပြီးရန်ခန့်မှန်းထားသည်။ တည်ဆောက်မည့်ရေလှောင်ကန်သည် အကျယ်အဝန်း (၆၀) ကီလိုမီတာ ရှိသည်။လူဦးရေ (၅၀၀)ခန့်နေထိုင်သည့် ရှမ်းရွာကြီး ဖြစ်သော တာလုံရွာသည် ရေအောက်လုံးဝမြုပ်သွားပြီးသီပေါမြို့ ၏တစ်စိတ်တပိုင်းတို့မှာ လည်း ရေအောက်မြှပ်သွားနိုင်သည်။ တာလုံ ၏အဓိပ္ပါယ်မှာ (ဆိပ်ကမ်းကြီး)ဟုဆိုသည်၊စည်ကားသာယာသည်။ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်- မြောက်ပိုင်းတွက် အော်ဂင်းနစ် သဘာဝလိမ္မော်သီး၊ ကျွဲကောသီးတို့မှာ နမ္မတူမြစ်ကမ်း တစ်လျှေက်တွင် စိုက်ပျိုးကြ၍ လူသိများသည်။ နှစ်ပေါင်းတစ်ရာကျော် ရှေးပဝေသဏီ ကတည်းက တည်ထားကိုးကွယ်သော စေတီပုထိုးများလည်းရှိသည်။ ရေကာတာ မတည် ဆောက်မှီကတည်းက တာလုံရွာသားတို့အား အကြောင်းကြားခြင်း မရှိသည့်ပြင် ညှိနှိုင်း တိုင်ပင်မှုများမရှိခဲ့ပေ။ သဘာဝနှင့် လူမှုဝန်းကျင်ထိခိုက်မှု အကဲခတ်အဖွဲ့ (ESIA) Environment and Social Impact Assessment တို့က၂၀၁၄ ခုနှစ်မှသာ စလုပ်ဆောင်လာသဖြင့် ရေကာတာစဆောက်ပြီး(၆) နှစ်မှ ရောက်လာခဲ့ခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။(ESIA)လုပ်နေစဉ်တွင်လည်း တာလုံရွာမှ ဒေသခံပြည်သူလူထုတို့မှာ ပြောင်းရွှေ့မှုကို မလိုလားကြကြောင်း ရှင်းရှင်းဖေါ်ပြကြသည်။ သို့သော်လည်း ဒီရေကာတာတည်ဆောက်မှုကို တရုတ်အရင်းအနှီး နှင့်ဆက်လက် လုပ်ဆောင်နေပြီး တရုတ်၊ဂျပန်၊ဂျာမန် နှင့် ဆွစ်ကုမ္မဏီ တို့လည်းပါဝင်ပတ်သက်နေသည် ရေလွှဲပေါက်ဥမင်လိုဏ်ခေါင်း မှ ပြီးစီးနေပြီဖြစ်ပြီး ရေကာတာ၏ အဓိကနံရံကို၂၀၁၆ ခုနှစ် အစောပိုင်းတွင်တည် ဆောက်သွားမည်ဖြစ်သည်။ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ် နမ္မတူ မြစ်ပေါ်တွင်တည်ဆောက်မည့် အခြားသော ရေကာတာ စီမံကိန်းများမှာ နောင်ချိုမြို့နယ် တည်ဆောက်နေသော အလယ်ရဲရွာ ရေကာတာစီမံကိန်းသည် နော်ဝေနိုင်ငံပိုင် အက်စ် အင်န်ပါဝါ ( SN Power) တာဝန်ယူတည်ဆောက်သည်။ သီပေါမြို့နယ်ရှိ နမ္မတူမြစ် ပေါ်တည်ဆောက်နေသည့် ရေကာတာလည်း ပွင့်လင်းမြင်သာမှုမရှိသလို ထိခိုက်နစ်နာမည့်လူထူကို ဆွေးနွေးအကြောင်းကြားခြင်းမရှိပေ။ ၎င်းရေကာတာ များ၏ အဆင့်များကြောင့် မြစ်ချောင်းပေါ်ရှိ သဘာဝဂေဟ စံနစ်ကို ပြင်းထန်စွာ ထိခိုက်နိုင်သည်။ငါးများသွားလာကျက်စားရာကို အနှောက်အယှက်ဖြစ်စေသဖြင့် သီပေါမြို့မှ ထောင်ပေါင်းသော ရပ်သူ၊ရွာသားအများ မှီခိုစားသောက်ရသော ငါးများ ထိခိုက်နစ်နာနိုင်သည်။ အထက်တွင်ရှိ သတ္တုတူးဖေါ်သည့် လုပ်ငန်းများကြောင့် ရေလှောင်ကန်များ အဆိပ်သင့်ရကာ ငါးတွေနှင့် အမှီပြုသည်သူများ၏ကျန်းမာလည်း ထိခိုက်နိုင်သည်။ သဘာဝပေါက်ပင်များ ရေဠေယင်ကန်တွင် ပုပ်သိုးပြီးမီသိန်းဓါတ်များထုတ်လွှတ်သဖြင့်ကမ္ဘာကြီးကိုပိုမိုပူနွေးလာမှု ကို ပိုဖြစ်စေသည်။ အခြားသောစိုးရိမ်ပူပန်မှုမှာ သီပေါမြို့နယ် နမ္မတူရေကာတာ စီမံကိန်းအောက်ပိုင်းတွင် နေသောသူများသည်ရေကာတာလုပ်ငန်း၏ ရေအတက်အကျကိုမခန့်မှန်းနိုင်ရကာမြစ်ကမ်း တစ်လျှောက်တွင် ရုတ်တရက်တစ်ရှိန်ထိုးရေကြီးလာနိုင်သော အန္တရာယ်များ ကြုံနိုင်သည်။အကယ်၍ မိုးသည်းထန်စွာရွာသွန်းပါက ကြီးမားသောရေထုထည်ကိုရေဂါတာ က လွှတ်ချမည်ဖြစ်သဖြင့် မြစ်အောက်ပိုင်းတွ?
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation, Shan State Farmers? Network, Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization
2016-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
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Size: 1.41 MB
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Description: In January 2016, Burma?s state media reported that Naypyidaw was proceeding with four new hydropower dams on the Namtu (Myitnge or Dokhtawaddy) River, three of which are in conflict areas of Shan State. These new dams, together with the existing Yeywa dam, will form a cascade blocking half the entire length of the river. The most advanced of the new dams is the Upper Yeywa Dam in Nawngkhio township, started by Burma?s military regime in 2008, and slated for completion in 2018. The planned reservoir will stretch for over 60 kilometers, entirely submerging a large Shan village of nearly 500 residents, called Ta Long, and possibly submerging part of Hsipaw town. Ta Long (meaning ?large harbor”) is a prosperous community, renowned in northern Shan State for its organic oranges and pomelos, grown along the riverbank. Ancient stupas in the village are hundreds of years old. Ta Long villagers were neither informed nor consulted before the dam began. An Environment and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) was carried out for the dam only in 2014, six years after the dam had begun. During the ESIA, the villagers stated clearly that they were not willing to move. Despite this, dam-building has continued, with funding from China, and with the involvement of Chinese, Japanese, German and Swiss companies. A diversion tunnel has been completed, and construction of the main dam wall was beginning in early 2016. The other planned dams on the Namtu in Shan State -- the Middle Yeywa Dam being developed by Norway?s state-owned SN Power in Nawng Khio township, and the Namtu Dam in Hsipaw township -- are also proceeding without transparency, and without the informed consent of impacted villagers. This cascade of dams will have serious impacts on the ecology of the river. Disruption of fish spawning and migration patterns are likely to negatively impact the rich fish stocks upon which thousands of Hsipaw villagers rely. Toxins from mining upstream are also likely to build up in the reservoirs, endangering aquatic life and the health of those relying on the river. Methane emitted from rotting vegetation in the reservoirs will also contribute to global warming. Another serious concern for villagers living below the planned Namtu Dam in Hsipaw will be the unpredictable fluctuations in water level due to the operation of the dam, and risk of sudden surges causing accidents along the river bank. If there is heavy rainfall, large amounts of water may have to be released, causing flooding downstream. Even more worrying is the possibility of dam breakage, due to pressure from abnormally heavy rainfall, landslides or earthquakes. The Middle Yeywa dam is being planned over the Kyaukkyan fault line, the centre of the biggest earthquake in Burma?s history in 1912, measuring about 8 on the Richter scale. This is of great concern, as the weight of dam reservoirs near fault lines is known to trigger earthquakes. Dam breakage would release a deadly tsunami, destroying any lower dams and also threatening countless communities in the lower plains. Finally, it is highly unwise for Naypyidaw to be pushing through these risky, untransparent dam projects in active conflict zones. Since early 2016, fighting has intensified in Shan townships where these dams are planned. With Naypyidaw?s monopoly over natural resources being a key driver of the ethnic conflict, forging ahead with damaging hydropower projects over the heads of local ethnic communities will only fuel resentment and exacerbate the conflict. We therefore urge the new NLD-led government to immediately halt all plans to build new dams on the Namtu River, including the Upper Yeywa dam. Only when there is a negotiated federal settlement to the ethnic conflict, bringing genuine nationwide peace and decentralized natural resource management, should options for future hydropower development along the Namtu river be considered. Any future plans for hydropower development on the Namtu River must involve a transparent strategic impact assessment along the entire river, and there must be Free Prior and Informed Consent of affected indigenous communities.
Source/publisher: Shan Human Rights Foundation, Shan State Farmers? Network, Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization
2016-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: Shan
Format : pdf
Size: 1.27 MB
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Description: "The incoming National League for Democracy government will soon need to make important decisions about the controversial Myitsone Dam. But it will also have to decide whether and how to harness the considerable opportunities for hydropower generation that exist in Myanmar, where less than one-third of the population has access to electricity..."
Creator/author: Joern Kristensen
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
2016-03-04
Date of entry/update: 2016-03-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Source/publisher: Biodiversity And Nature Conservation Assoication (BANCA)
2009-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 34.11 MB
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Description: The Myitsone dam should not be built:"...?With experts, find an alternative option to avoid construction of Mytisone dam at the confluence.” (p. 25) ?If Myanmar and Chinese sides were really concerned about environmental issues and aimed at sustainable development of the country, there is no need for such a big dam to be constructed at the confluence of the Ayeyawady River. Instead two smaller dams could be built above Myitsone to produce nearly the same amount of electricity. Hence respecting the Kachin cultural values which surpass any amount of the overall construction costs.” (p. 40) ?The construction of the dam on the Irrawaddy should be avoided due to the changes in downriver hydrology which may affect navigation, riverine ecosystem and delta ecosystem and will lead to negative impacts on the economy.” (p. 227)..."
Source/publisher: Burma Rivers Network (BRN)
2011-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-01-31
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 85.95 KB
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Description: Environmental activists concerned that the controversial Myitsone dam project was never in fact halted say that a recently leaked document proves that construction is indeed moving ahead as previously planned.
Source/publisher: Kachin News Group
2012-04-04
Date of entry/update: 2012-04-05
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese
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Description: After the decision to shelve a China-funded hydropower plant on the Irrawaddy River caused uproar in Beijing, Qin Hui set off south to learn about the project and its opponents. He opens a three-part article.
Creator/author: Qin Hui March 28, 2012
Source/publisher: Chinadialogue
2012-03-28
Date of entry/update: 2012-04-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: China?s resolve not to interfere in its neighbour?s ?internal affairs" rings hollow: the country has played a formative role in Burmese history, writes Qin Hui.
Creator/author: Qin Hui
Source/publisher: Chinadialogue
2012-03-28
Date of entry/update: 2012-04-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: In a region scarred by violent conflict and rife with distrust of China, the investment risks are plain. Qin Hui concludes his three-part analysis of the fate of the Myitsone dam.
Creator/author: Qin Hui
Source/publisher: Chinadialogue
2012-03-28
Date of entry/update: 2012-04-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "The following quotations come from an interview with the president of the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) Lu Qizhou about Burma?s Myitsone dam project. The interview appeared in the Chinese media on October 3. The umbrella activist group Burma Rivers Network (BRN) here releases its response to key points made by the CPI president. Burma?s president Thein Sein announced a halt to the controversial Myitsone Dam project on September 30. Thein Sein also said that discussions would follow with China. LU-Qizhou-cpi CPI chairman Lu Qizhou. Photo: eng.cpicorp.com.cn Lu Qizhou: ?I also learnt about this through the media, and I was totally astonished. Before this, the Myanmar side never communicated with us in any way about the ?suspension?.” BRN: The villagers at the dam site, numerous political and community organizations, and international human rights organizations have attempted to contact CPI and discuss the concerns about the impacts and process of the project. Even though CPI never responded to these attempts at a dialogue, they cannot claim to be unaware of the feeling about this project by the people of Burma. It is impossible that CPI could not have been aware that Burma is in the midst of civil war and that the Irrwaddy-Myitsone dams project is in an active conflict zone. The armed ethnic group in this area, the Kachin Independence Organisation, had directly warned the Chinese government that local people were against the project earlier this year and that proceeding with the dams could fuel further fighting. Without national reconciliation and peace, all investments in Burma face these types of risks. Lu Qizhou: ?Ever since CPI and Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power No. 1 MOEP (1) signed the MOU in December 2006, CPI has always followed the principle of mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win result” BRN: Up to now all major investment projects in Burma are negotiated by Burma?s military government and the main benefits have gone to the military. Any win-win result has only been for the military and this is resented by the people of Burma. The lack of transparency by the military and foreign investors increases this resentment. The role and share of the Burmese companies should also be disclosed, including the benefits to Asia World Company and whether military holding companies, the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (UMEHL) and the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) are involved. Lu Qizhou: ?We hired topnotch hydropower design institutes, research institutes, consultancies and authoritative experts in China to carry out planning, design, specific study, consultation and supervision for the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project.” BRN: The impact assessment jointly carried out by the Chinese Changjiang Institute and the Burmese BANCA stated very clearly that the Myitsone dam should be scrapped and that the majority of the local people were against this project. Why did CPI hire ?topnotch” institutes and then not follow their advice? The original EIA was completed in October 2009, which was only leaked earlier this year. CPI has just released an edited version of the EIA and dated it March 2010, which has deleted the key findings and recommendations. Although it was recommended, the original assessment did not include a social impact assessment or an assessment of the impacts on the entire river, particularly downstream. In the current political context, where there is civil war and where communities fear retribution by Burma?s military government, assessors are unable to genuinely access affected communities or collect reliable data. Lu Qizhou: ?In February this year, Myanmar?s Prime Minister (Thein Sein) urged us to accelerate the construction when he inspected the project site, so the sudden proposal of suspension now is very bewildering.” BRN: Thein Sein should explain his actions if he indeed wanted to accelerate the project. In addition, the Burmese military government must disclose all agreements signed with CPI so that this is a transparent process for everyone to see. Lu Qizhou: ?The upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project is located near the China-Myanmar border, developing hydropower resources here not only can meet Myanmar?s power demand for industrialization, but also can provide clean energy for China. It is based on this consideration that we decided to invest in this mutually beneficial and double winning hydropower project.” BRN: We understand that this is a double winning project for China as it can receive 90 per cent of the energy from the dam while Burma has to bear all the social and economic costs. Lu Qizhou: ?The Myanmar government will gain economic benefits of USD $54 billion via taxation, free electricity and share dividends, far more than CPI?s return on investment during our operation period.” BRN: Over the past several years, Burma?s military government has received billions in revenues from the sale of natural gas to Thailand, yet the country remains impoverished with some of the worst social and economic indicators in the world. The ?economic benefits” therefore do not reach the broader public and do not contribute to the genuine development of the country. Lu Qizhou: ?As far as I know, in the more than 100-year history of hydropower development, no flood or destructive earthquake has ever been caused by dam construction. We are able to ensure the safety of dam construction.” BRN: Given the increasing frequency and severity of earthquakes, there cannot be a guarantee of safety. No studies about the safety of the dam or about disaster preparation have been disclosed to the public. The world?s worst dam disaster occurred in Henan Province in central China in 1975. Twenty years after the disaster, details started emerging that as many as 230,000 people may have died. Lu Qizhou: ?It has become a common consensus that hydropower is the only renewable energy suitable for large-scale development now.” BRN: Rural communities in Burma and Kachin State are utilizing the appropriate technology of small hydropower to realize their electricity needs on their own. The Kachin capital of Myitkyina is one of the few cities in Burma that currently receives 24-hour electricity due to an existing small hydropower project. Decentralized management and the right of local people to manage and utilize the electricity generated by small hydro needs to be promoted in Burma, not large scale projects that are environmentally destructive and export electricity rather than using it domestically. Lu Qizhou: ?The Myanmar government attaches significant importance to resettlement for the upstream-Ayeyawady hydropower project, and has effectively led and organized the planning, design and implementation of resettlement? According to the agreement, we assisted in the resettlement work and proactively fulfilled our social responsibilities and obligations, while fully respecting local religion, ethnic customs and the wish of migrants.” BRN: Villagers fear for their lives if they complain or resist relocation at the hands of armed military personnel and have thus been forced to give up their farmlands, accept inadequate compensation, and be herded into a relocation camp where there is not enough farmland and water for livelihoods. People now either have no jobs or low-wage temporary jobs and they cannot continue cultural practices linked to their original homelands. Villagers living in the relocation camp are restricted in movement and are constantly under military surveillance. Over 60 villages, approximately 15,000 people, will eventually be permanently displaced from their homelands due to the Irrawaddy Myitsone project. This dislocation will cause many secondary social problems including conflicts over jobs and land, and an increase in migration and trafficking to neighboring count
Source/publisher: Mizzima News
2011-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2011-10-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 64.34 KB
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Description: Deals mainly with energy policy and announces the suspension of the Myitsone dam..."...As our government is elected by the people, it is to respect the people?s will. We have the responsibility to address public concerns in all seriousness. So construction of Myitsone Dam will be suspended in the time of our government. Other hydropower projects that pose no threat will be implemented through thorough survey for availability of electricity needed for the nation..."
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar" 1 October 2011
2011-10-01
Date of entry/update: 2011-10-01
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 184.65 KB
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Description: "...To conserve the Irrawaddy is to protect our economy and our environment as well as to safeguard our cultural heritage. Most important of all, uniting in conservation efforts would carry dividends in the way of better understanding and practical cooperation. Many individuals and organizations have done valuable research on the Irrawaddy and there will surely be no lack of information and practical suggestions that could serve as a basis for a conservation scheme. Much can be achieved simply by the strict application of already existing laws and regulations pertaining to the conservation of forests and rivers. We therefore appeal to environmental experts, to conservationists and to lovers of nature, peace and harmony everywhere to join us in a campaign to create a worldwide awareness of the dangers threatening one of the most important rivers of Asia. Together we can find solutions to problems, ecological, economic, technical, and political, related to the Irrawaddy."
Creator/author: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Source/publisher: 54-56 University Avenue, Rangoon
2011-08-11
Date of entry/update: 2011-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 59.05 KB
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Description: "...All the hydropower projects the government has been implementing across the nation including the ones on the confluence of the Ayeyawady River, upstream the Maykha River and the Malikha River in Kachin State are prudent ones for all-round development of the regions, and creating job opportunities. So, they are the facilities of national heritage. To sum up, the government has been investing heavily in generation of electric power and building national grids and power houses to supply electricity to the people. It indicates that the government is taking measures in all sectors, utilizing natural resources and aquatic and terrestrial resources across the Union most effectively, in the long-term interests of the democratic nation and the generations to follow. In its drive for improving the infrastructures with benevolent attitude, the government aims to narrow the gab of the rich and the poor and accelerating the development momentum of respective regions in order to hand down the perpetual natural heritage."
Creator/author: A Staff Member, MEPE (Ministry for Electric Power?)
Source/publisher: "The New Light of Myanmar"
2011-08-09
Date of entry/update: 2011-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 191.86 KB
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Description: The Eleven Media Group and veteran journalist Ludu U Sein Win have explicitly made realistic comments on the article written in the state-owned newspapers issued on 9 August 2011 by ?A Service Personnel of Electric Power? about the Hydropower Project being implemented in Myanmar... Now, experts from home and abroad, observers, journalists are writing and airing on Myitsone dam hydropower project based on reliable facts and figures that is sure to bring negative impacts likely to trigger from the project.
Creator/author: Win Htut
2011-08-17
Date of entry/update: 2011-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 64.95 KB
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Description: Text of the open letter sent to Chinese President Hu Jintao, in which the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) asks China to stop the planned Mali Nmai Concluence (Myitsone) Dam Project to be built in Burma?s northern Kachin state, warning that the controversial project could lead to civil war
Source/publisher: Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)
2011-03-16
Date of entry/update: 2011-05-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 877.53 KB
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Description: "Chinese companies are funding a multi-billion dollar project to dam the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar. The river, the longest one left undammed in southeast Asia, is important to the Kachin people, and millions of people up and down its length would be affected by the changes, experts say. When it is dammed, it will leave an area the size of New York City submerged. There are now concerns over who is to benefit from the river?s riches. Our special correspondent in Myanmar, who we cannot name for security reasons, filed this report."
Source/publisher: Al Jazeera
2011-04-22
Date of entry/update: 2011-05-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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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, Shan Sapawa Environmental Organisation
2010-12-14
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-15
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.62 MB
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Description: Kachin villagers and exiles hope they can stop plans to build a dam that will flood an area they consider their ancestral homeland
Creator/author: David Paquette
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 4
2010-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Burma and China prepare to build seven hydroelectric dams in Kachin State that will not provide the people of Burma with jobs, security or even electricity Large-scale hydroelectric dams have long been decried for the immense damage they do to the environment and rural communities. Not everyone agrees, however, that the problems associated with mega-dams outweigh their benefits. After all, say pragmatists, dams are a reliable supply of electricity, without which no country can hope to survive in the modern world. (Illustration: Harn lay / The irrawaddy) But in Burma, such arguments fall flat. Not only do massive dam-building projects take an especially high toll on people?s lives—besides destroying villages and the environment, they result in intensifying human rights abuses and make diseases such as malaria more prevalent—they also come without a payoff for the general population. At the end of the day, the electricity they generate—the only benefit the Burmese people can expect to get from them—remains as scarce as ever..."
Creator/author: David Paquette
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 18, No. 4
2010-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: The water level on the Irrawaddy River has been decreasing in recent years and looks set to drop farther, as several hydroelectric dams are being constructed... "Born and bred on the banks of the Irrawaddy River, Ko Soe says he knows the river like the back of his hand. As a child he swam, fished and played with friends in the Irrawaddy, and today he makes a living from steering boats to and from Mandalay and on the many tributaries that stream into Burma?s longest river. Now 36, he knows all the waterways, the currents and the shallows, as well as the best places for mooring and fishing on this stretch of the Irrawaddy. A passenger boat on the Irrawaddy River But lately, Ko Soe, has found navigating the river a tiresome task. ?I?ve seen very low water levels recently and the appearance of sandbanks and islets,” he said. ?Sometimes the water is as low as two feet, so many boats cannot pass through. Many vessels get stuck on sandbars.” He said that until five years ago, the water level never sank below three feet. Apart from the millions of livelihoods the river provides for in terms of fishing, trade and farming, the Irrawaddy has supported for centuries an abundant variety of flora and fauna, including the Irrawaddy dolphin, which was once a common sight in the estuaries of the Irrawaddy delta. Experts warn that the flow of the river is in serious danger due to the Burmese military government?s eagerness to promote logging, gold mining and hydroelectric dam projects..."
Creator/author: Sein Htay, David Paquette
Source/publisher: \"The Irrawaddy\" Vol. 18, No. 2
2010-02-00
Date of entry/update: 2010-02-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Message from KDNG: "As a network of residents of Kachin State, we, the Kachin Development Networking Group, have been monitoring plans by the stateowned China Power Investment Corporation and Burma?s military regime to build seven dams on the Irrawaddy River and its two main tributaries. In 2007 we published the report, "Damming the Irrawaddy" which surveyed the environment and peoples in the affected area and analyzed the negative impacts of these dams. Today construction of the 2,000-megawatt Chibwe Dam on the N?Mai River is already underway. The forced relocation of 15,000 people to clear out the flood zone of the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam has also begun. In August 2009 villagers were informed that they must begin to move out within two months. There have been no public assessments of the projects, no consultation with affected people within the flood zone or downstream, and no consent from local residents or the larger population of Burma. As a result, public resistance to the dams is growing. Despite the risks of arrest, torture or death for dissent in military-ruled Burma, brave people are demanding a halt to the dams. Mass prayer ceremonies calling for the protection of the rivers have been held along the river banks and in churches up and downstream. Posters, open letters, and graffi ti from students, elders and prominent leaders have objected to the dams. In a face-to-face meeting with the Burma Army?s Northern Commander, local residents made it clear that no amount of compensation will make up for the losses these dams will bring to their community and future generations. We stand with the people of Kachin State and throughout Burma who oppose these dams. The demand to stop this project has been made clear to our military rulers and now we specifically appeal to China Power Investment Corporation and the government of China to stop these dams..."
Source/publisher: Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) via Burma Rivers Network (BRN)
2009-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.05 MB
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Description: "At night the Shweli has always sung sweet songs for us. But now the nights are silent and the singing has stopped. We are lonely and wondering what has happened to our Shweli?" ... "Exclusive photos and testimonies from a remote village near the China-Burma border uncover how Chinese dam builders are using Burma Army troops to secure Chinese investments. Under the Boot, a new report by Palaung researchers, details the implementation of the Shweli Dam project, China?s first Build-Operate-Transfer hydropower deal with Burma?s junta. Since 2000, the Palaung village of Man Tat, the site of the 600 megawatt dam project, has been overrun by hundreds of Burmese troops and Chinese construction workers. Villagers have been suffering land confiscation, forced labour, and restriction on movement ever since, and a five kilometer diversion tunnel has been blasted through the hill on which the village is situated. Photos in the report show soldiers carrying out parade drills, weapons assembly, and target practice in the village. "This Chinese project has been like a sudden military invasion. The villagers had no idea the dam would be built until the soldiers arrived," said Mai Aung Ko from the Palaung Youth Network Group (Ta?ang), which produced the report. Burma?s Ministry of Electric Power formed a joint venture with Yunnan Joint Power Development Company, a consortium of Chinese companies, to build and operate the project. Electricity generated will be sent to China and several military-run mining operations in Burma. As the project nears completion, plans are underway for two more dams on the Shweli River, a tributary of the Irrawaddy..."
Source/publisher: Palaung Youth Network Group
2007-12-03
Date of entry/update: 2007-12-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese, Chinese
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Description: Executive Summary: "The Irrawaddy, one of Asia?s great river systems which flows through Burma?s heartlands, is about to be dammed. Burma?s military junta is allowing Chinese companies to build a giant 152-meter-tall hydropower dam and transmit the electricity back to China. The dam is one in a series that the junta has planned involving the export of power to neighboring countries. While the regime will gain new revenues, Burma?s ordinary citizens, who have no say in the process, will bear the costs. A project-launching ceremony for the dam at the confluence (or Myitsone in Burmese), where the Irrawaddy begins, was held in May 2007 in Burma?s northernmost Kachin State. The dam will generate 3,600 MW of electricity, most of which will be transmitted to China, fitting into the Chinese Central Government?s ?West to East Power Transmission Policy? The power will be worth an estimated US$500 million per year. The Irrawaddy Myitsone dam is the first in a series of seven large Chinese dams to be built along this waterway. Deeply concerned about the dam?s potential impacts, elders, community leaders and villagers from across Kachin State have sent protest letters directly to Senior General Than Shwe and the military?s Northern Commander to stop the project, but the objections have so far fallen on deaf ears. An estimated 47 villages will be inundated in a region recognized as one of the world?seight "hottest hotspots of biodiversity." Approximately 10,000 people will be displaced, losing their livelihoods, and exacerbating the existing problems of unemployment, drug addiction and HIV/AIDS in the area. Roads that are the link betweenmajor towns in theremote state will be cutoffby the floods impacting communication, transportation, and trade. Recent dam breaks in nearby rivers in 2006 have swept away houses and bridges, causing fatalities and destroying power stations and dam structures beyond repair. Northern Burma is earthquake-prone, and the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam site is less than 100 km from the major Sagaing fault line. Dam breakage or unnatural flood surges would be disastrous for Myitkyina, the capital city of Kachin State that lies only 40 kilometers downstream of the dam. The well-documented negative impacts of large dams on fisheries, flood plain farming and river bank cultivation will impact the millions that rely on the Irrawaddy. Health concerns that include an increase in malaria and the release of toxic methyl-mercury from the dam?s reservoir will endanger Burma?s people, further burdening a healthcare system that is ranked as one of the worst in the world. The critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin may become extinct in its namesake river. Human rights abuses by the military have been extensively reported, including the junta?s use of troops and landmines to secure large development projects, resulting in forced labor, land confiscation and threats to life. There is no reason to expect that the communities living at the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam site will not suffer the same consequences. Women are particularly susceptible to sexual violence by troops. In addition to these risks, women face pressures to participate in the sex trade once construction sites are set up and livelihoods are lost, and are increasingly vulnerable to human trafficking. For centuries, the Myitsone has been the source of songs, poems and legends which are not only the heritage of the Kachin but all the people of Burma. If this dam were to go ahead, a national cultural landmark would be permanently submerged and lost to future generations. The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) joins those who have already spoken out to call for an end to the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project. The ruling military junta is promoting mega-development that places all the costs and risks on disenfranchised peoples while fortifying military control. Small-scale alternatives that recognize the rights of local communities and empower them to participate and manage resources are possible. China is an important neighbor that can be a positive influence in the region. KDNG calls on China to abide at least by its own standards when operating in Burma and to heed the voices of affected peoples."
Source/publisher: Kachin Development Networking Group
2007-10-22
Date of entry/update: 2007-10-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese
Format : pdf pdf
Size: 2.69 MB 1.55 MB
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Description: "Zaw Oo is one of the directors of the Washington-based think-tank, The Burma Fund. In a written reply to The Irrawaddy, he discussed sanctions and some of the factors behind Burma?s economic uncertainties... Question: For years, experts have warned that Burma?s economy is teetering on collapse and many now expect that tougher sanctions enacted by the US will deliver the final blow. Others say the informal economy and border trade will keep Burma afloat. What is your assessment? Answer: In Burma, we have a sizeable informal economy that parallels the official economy. Sanctions hit the official side of the economy and hit the government hard. Sanctions have a negligible impact on the informal economy, where most Burmese make a living. Therefore, sanctions have damaged some of the government?s main income sources but spared the wider population. Because of the large informal sector, we won?t see the economy collapse in the near term..."
Creator/author: Zaw Oo
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 11, No. 9
2003-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-01-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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