Killing the Irrawaddy

There have been many countries rushing to Burma to exploit its vast natural resources ever since the military regime opened its doors to a market economy. The reality, however, is that it is not real capitalism, but crony-capitalism. China is the most aggressive investor among them, and is sucking the country’s blood everywhere it can set foot. Centuries-old evergreen forests in Kachin and Shan States were rooted out by Chinese logging companies. Many mountains are being destroyed by Chinese mine companies to search for gold, copper, sapphire and jade. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and hundreds of villages have been destroyed along the route of construction of two pipelines that transport natural gas and oil to China from Burma’s Rakhine (Arakan) State. Some major cities of Burma are now becoming like Chinese cities, as Chinese populations and their properties grow and expand dramatically. Actually, China has colonized Burma without shooting a gun and has sucked the life of the people of Burma with the help of the Burmese regime and its cronies. Now, they are killing the Irrawaddy River as well.

Tens of thousands of Chinese workers have been in Kachin State, using heavy machinery and building infrastructures for the Myitsone Dam project. Forests are being cut down. Valleys and plains are being dug up. Nearly 20,000 ethnic people are being forced to relocate. The Myitsone confluence will be destroyed and most of the major cities in Kachin State will be flooded and submerged when the dams are completed. But the harsh repercussions will be felt not just in Kachin state, but also downstream, as 60 percent of the people of Burma rely on the Irrawaddy’s watershed.

After completion of the dam, the water flow from the N’Mai and Mali Rivers will be stopped by the dam and saved in the reservoir to generate electricity. The N’Mai and Mali Rivers will not be the origin of the Irrawaddy anymore, but rather the dam will be. The amount of water to be kept at all the times in the reservoir will drastically decrease the amount of water the Irrawaddy receives, and the flow of water in the river will be much weaker. It will create huge damage for the people living along the river, beginning with ships and vessels unable to sail in the shallow waters; fishermen unable to catch fish which can’t survive in the polluted waters; farmers unable to grow rice and vegetables due to frequent draughts and lack of sufficient and steady water supplies; the spread and epidemic of infectious diseases from using and drinking contaminated water and lack of clean water; permanent losses of vulnerable and endangered species of birds, flowers, plants and fresh water animals; significant changes of ecosystem and climate; destruction of mangroves; in addition to other extensive damages. During the dry season, which lasts four months from February to May, due to the low volume of water coming from the upstream of the river, sea water from the Andaman Sea will flow back to the Delta region with high tidal water volume, and Burma’s major rice production area will be flooded with salt-water. The Irrawaddy River may disappear in ten years, like the Yellow River in China.

This will be a major catastrophe for the people of Burma in terms of food security, health, society, the economy, poverty levels and politics.

The Burmese regime will receive about $500 million per year, 20 percent of the total revenue, when the project begins to generate and transport electricity to China. But this will amount to a tiny fraction of the losses the people of Burma will have to bear for generations.

The Chinese government has been aiding the Burmese regime in its crimes against humanity for many years. For decades, Burma’s military regime has been carrying out scorched-earth campaigns against its own civilian population, destroying over 3,700 ethnic villages, using rape as a weapon of war, enslaving hundreds of thousands of Burmese people as forced laborers, recruiting tens of thousands of child soldiers into its army, killing innocent civilians, and forcing over 2 million people to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced persons. Such flagrant crimes are not simply human rights abuses—they are mass atrocities, amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Compounding the brutality and magnitude of such international crimes is the system of impunity, which protects perpetrators and punishes victims.

Now, the Chinese government has crossed the line, stepped up further to commit its own human rights abuses in Burma by attempting to kill the Irrawaddy. Killing the Irrawaddy is destroying the lives of the people of Burma—both in the present and in the future—physically and mentally.

The Irrawaddy River is the past, present and future of Burma and major bloodline of the country.