Suu Kyi Appeals for Megadam Review
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Burma

Suu Kyi Appeals for Megadam Review


By YENI Thursday, August 11, 2011


In this file photo taken on Jan. 7, 2011, a Kachin ethnic woman walks on stones in the Irrawaddy River near Myitkyina. (Photo: AP)
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Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has issued a personal appeal to all concerned parties to review the ongoing dam projects in Kachin State, the main one being the 6,000-megawatt Myitsone dam which is being built at the source of the Irrawaddy River.

“Ecological change to the Irrawaddy would impact all those whose lives are linked to the great river, from the ethnic peoples in the northernmost state of our country to the rice-growing communities of the delta,” Suu Kyi wrote in a statement released on Thursday. “To conserve the Irrawaddy is to protect our economy and our environment, as well as to safeguard our cultural heritage,” she added.

“While recognizing that large sums of money have already been spent on the realization of the project, we would urge that in the interests of both national and international harmony, concerned parties should reassess the scheme and cooperate to find solutions that would prevent undesirable consequences and thus allay the fears of all who are anxious to protect the Irrawaddy,” Suu Kyi said. (To read the full statement: http://irrawaddy.org/pdf/Irrawaddy_Appeal.pdf)

Dam construction on the Irrawaddy—often referred to as the “lifeline” of the country, because it flows through several of Burma's main cities— is being facilitated by the Burmese government and financed by China’s state-owned China Power Investment Corporation (CPI). However, the project has become a major talking point among Burmese in recent weeks as criticism by environmental rights groups mounts.

Environmentalists say the megadam project will cause serious social and environmental problems, and will directly affect people living both upstream and also far downstream, even as far away as the Irrawaddy delta and the coastal areas of Burma.

In May 2007, the Burmese military regime and CPI signed an agreement to build seven large dams in Kachin State by 2017.

Upon completion, the project will have capacity to produce approximately 13,360-MW of electricity annually—which will not be for local consumption; it will be transferred to Yunnan Province to feed China’s expanding energy needs.
 
Meanwhile, an environmental impact assessment, fully funded by CPI and conducted by a team of Burmese and Chinese scientists—but which was obtained by Thailand-based Burma Rivers Network—said that the dams will threaten the biodiversity of the local ecosystem, as well as impacting millions of people who depend on the Irrawaddy River for their livelihoods.

The megadam project in Kachin State is deeply unpopular among the general population. Local communities in project areas have opposed the dams, not just because of their displacement, environmental impact and threats to cultural sites, but also because the site 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 hundreds of thousands of people by flooding Kachin State’s largest city, Myitkyina,” noted Burma Rivers Network on its website.

The Myitsone Dam is being constructed at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers. It is the largest among the seven dams, and is expected to produce 3,600 to 6,000 MW of electricity annually. When finished, it will be the 15th-largest hydroelectric power station in the world.

Under contract to the CPI in partnership with Burma's Electricity Ministry of Electric Power-1 and private firm AsiaWorld, the dam will create a reservoir the size of New York.

In July, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei said that "cooperation between China and Myanmar [Burma] is on the basis of mutual equality, and is in the interest of both countries' development and both countries' people."

The spokesman added that China pays close attention to ecological protection and requires Chinese companies operating outside its borders to obey local environmental and other laws.

The Burmese state media, in response to critical articles such as Aung Din's "Killing the Irrawaddy" has maintained that the project will have no negative impact on the flow of the Irrawaddy, nor on the lives and livelihoods of the local population.

Related Article: Killing the Irrawaddy

COMMENTS (12)
 
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Human Rights Foundation of Mon Wrote:
16/08/2011
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is right. Damming Irrawaddy is not only problem for the Kachins, but the majority Burmans those live in lower part of the proposed dam. You pro-democracy groups and ordinary Burmans should organize campaign against Chinese and its companies around the world. I think you know how to do it.

Prozac Wrote:
14/08/2011
China keeps repeating they never interfere in the internal matters of other nations. But this is one of the greatest interferences that will have permanent damage on all the ethnic peoples of Burma. If China persists in these outrageous lies and builds all these dams, they will be held responsible for the terrible catastrophes and will have to bear the wrath of the entire population of Burma.

khar Wrote:
13/08/2011
Imagine a federalist country emerging out of burma. Imagine a country born out of different ethnic people running their own regions, where its natural resources are shared the very people who owns them, where native people reap the benefits of all infrustratures built in their regions....i am proposing establishing a new country of ethnic minority in Burma.

Khant NweWin Wrote:
13/08/2011
Those military idiots are destroying Burma's most precious natural resource not to benefit the people but to destroy the country even further and make their wallets fatter. I am glad Aung San Suu Kyi is standing up on behalf of the people to save a foreseeable damage. The military is very well known to steal and abuse the country's many resources at the cost of the people's lives.

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
13/08/2011
Who cares about the hollow words of the traitor SuuKyi ARIS. JUST HER DESPERATE ACT.Her swan song in dying days.
Now she is crawling to government for recognition. Fat chance!
Our ancestors fought the English coloniser and subsequently the fascist Japanese gallantly. We shed blood, sweat and tears for our freedom.
We will now fight enemies within- Panglongists and disintegrationists continuing the divide-and-rule game of the coloniser to destroy Burma.
A rose by any other name is still a rose. SuuKyi by hijected name of AungSan suuKyi is still MRS. MICHAEL ARIS!
FACT!

tocharian Wrote:
12/08/2011
China views Burma as a natural resource rich client state with geo-strategic value. They are damming the rivers, logging the pristine forests, mining for jade and gold, pumping gas and oil through pipeline and setting up naval bases in Burma, just to serve their greedy and materialistic "Great Chinese Economic Leapfrog Forward", Except for a small elite group of business cronies of the regime, these mega-projects are bound to have a negative impact on many poor rural farmers, who rely on the natural bounty of Burma to make a living. Burma is rapidly losing it's beautiful natural landscape and it's traditional way of life. As someone born in Burma, I personally never believed that money is the measure of everything in this world. The Irrawaddy and the dolphins that swim in there, not to mention the people of Burma, should not be abandoned for a "fistful of Yuan"

Sai Aron Suriya Wrote:
12/08/2011
Wonder Chinese government has ethics and principle at all. All the Chinese government care about is getting resources and exploiting natural environment. Using pretext after pretext, the main purpose is to exploit and making profit out of it. No shame of backing up corrupt government across the globe. Bluntly using veto power as a tool for ecnonomic gain. Without consideration of local people and their wish to live as a pure simple human being . Suppress universal human value. All add up chinese government is a scum of humanity.

Zam Mang Wrote:
12/08/2011
In case of earthquake or any kind of disaster(man-made/natural), the dam can break anytime, and destroyed countless lives and properties in Kachinland. If it is the way Thein Sein wants to use as a weapon to wipe out Kachin people, it will be a damn, not a dam for himself.

Tide Wrote:
12/08/2011
Hey Daw Suu...

England needs you now. Young and marginalised youths are rioting and looting. The underling factor is poverty, and the government is cracking them now.

Why don't you go back to your step-parents' country to stand for those young and poor people?


Mualcin Wrote:
12/08/2011
Ignoring the calls to reconsider this unwise project will bring the Thein Sein administration to ground zero. Please do not kame deals with the Chinese communist government. China does not care about others as long as they benefit.

Myint Myat Twe Wrote:
12/08/2011
Will the regime really care about DASSK expression? They jut care their own business.

To stop this dam project, firstly to stop Steven Law's Asia World.

kerry Wrote:
12/08/2011
The Burmese and Chinese governments do not have an image problem. This backwards thinking is like an ostrich putting its head in the sand.

The Burmese and Chinese governments have a political prisoner, human rights and freedom problem.

Neither country will be respected until the people have a true voice, and a say in their lives and destiny.

No amount of propaganda has worked for China. It will not work either for its 'offspring' in Burma. Everyone can see everything, despite all attempts.

Just as the people of China are stirring about ridiculous internal control, and what is hidden, so too the people of Burma can see that their current situation is absurd and untenable.

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