Maday Island Deep-Sea Port No Boon to Locals
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Thursday, March 28, 2024
Burma

Maday Island Deep-Sea Port No Boon to Locals


By KHIN OO THAR Tuesday, March 1, 2011


A ceremony is held to mark the start of construction of the China section on the Sino-Burmese oil and gas pipeline project in China's Yunnan province. (Photo: Xinhua)
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If we don't have land, we will have nothing to work on,” said another Maday Island villager whose land was confiscated.

U Ohn, one of Burma's most prominent environmentalists and the vice-chairman of the Forest Resource Environment Development and Conservation Association, told The Irrawaddy that the environment on Maday Island and in the surrounding Kyaukpru area will be severely affected by construction of the deep-sea port and related projects.

“What has been written in the book with regard to environmental conservation is really great. But there has been no implementation. We were not consulted on anything about the environmental impact of projects in Kyaukpru,” said U Ohn.

U Ohn said wastes and poisonous chemicals from gas extraction will not only affect the environment but also endanger aquatic animals as the amount of water pollution will be huge. In addition, the loss of mountains, mangrove forests and reefs along the coast will be inevitable, he said.

People on Maday Island said that apart from economic hardships they will encounter due to the confiscation of their farm and garden lands, they are anxiously worried about being left unprotected if they face another natural disaster. They said that although they were affected by Cyclone Giri in October 2010, they survived because they were protected by the surrounding mountains which have now been demolished one by one because of the deep-sea port project.

“These mountains protect us from natural disasters such as storms and floods. We can face catastrophe any time if there are no mountains around us,” said a Maday Island resident.

The regime, however, insists that despite the environmental impact and hardships faced by locals, the deep-sea port project is worthwhile because the Kyaukpru area will be developed as a result.

“I accept the fact that our area will be developed under these projects but there will be more disadvantages than benefits,” said a Kyaukpru lawyer. “China will extract natural resources from our area for about 30 years, so after the completion of those projects we will be left with nothing but empty buildings.”

The lawyer said if the regime really wants to focus on local development it should build up the skills of young people in the area and let them be involved in the projects. The opposite, however, seems to be occurring, as locals are reportedly precluded from working on the deep-sea port project.

The CNPC and its subsidiaries reportedly do not allow local people to work on their projects and have appointed Chinese to many positions. Kyaukpru residents said there are an estimated 2,000 Chinese currently working in their area.

“Our farm lands were confiscated but we can't work on those projects. We are not even allowed to catch fish and move around freely in nearby areas,” said a Maday Island resident.

He said those who lost their farmland were compensated only 200,000-700,000 kyat [$230-805] per acre, compared to the minimum market value of at least one million kyat per acre.

“We only received about one third of the compensation given by foreign companies because local authorities took some,” confirmed a villager from Kyauk Tan Village on Maday Island.

They said that even though locals are not allowed to work on the deep-sea port construction, they can take hard-labor jobs on the gas refinery project.

“I earn 1,500 kyat [$ 1.70] for my work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” said a worker.

He said that although his daily wages are too small to meet the current commodity prices, people have no choice because they don't have any other job options. Female workers are given only 1,000 kyat [$ 1.15] a day, he said.

In addition to the Chinese, people from other parts of Burma will be coming to the Kyaukpru area to work on the projects. Restaurants, entertainment businesses, bars and brothels are consequently emerging in the area to meet the needs of those employees.

“We now can see people take sex workers with cars and motorcycles. But we can't stop them because authorities have allowed such business,” said a Kyaukpru resident.

He said Chinese companies neither follow local regulations nor pay respect to religion. Some company staff even drink alcohol inside monasteries, he said.

Among the other hardships they have to endure, Kyaukpru residents face the bitter irony of having little access to electricity even though their area is rich in natural gas and oil. Instead, they use wood and charcoal fires for heating and cooking.

“It costs 600 kyat [$ 0.7] for a unit of electricity. An average monthly electricity bill is more than 20,000 kyat per household.



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malihkrang Wrote:
02/03/2011
We must ban this project until democratic civilian government rules in Burma.

Time to act every Burmese people to protest by using any means necessary now.

tocharian Wrote:
02/03/2011
The Chinese will control their pipeline and look where it is: runs through the heart of Burma! We will soon see thousands of Chinese "technicians" and "military advisors" along this whole stretch supervising Burmese slave labour. They will also use the seaports on the Bay of Bengal for refueling their ships including warships. It's part of their strategy to control sea-lanes called "string of pearls". Burma has become a pawn and a vassal-state of China (just look at the red and yellow balloons and flags in the photo: so Chinese!).

Given the internal conflicts and the rampant corruption, it was a piece of cake for Peking to take control of "Mian Dian" (Chinese for Burma). They bribed the tayoke pay min (the King who sold the country to China), Than Shwe. The future of Burma now lies in Chinese hands, even if there are some minor shuffles at the top. I'm even more ashamed than angry!

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