Myitsone Dam Continues: Kachin NGO

The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) claims that work at the Myitsone Dam is continuing, despite a presidential statement last September suspending construction on the controversial Chinese-backed megadam project in Burma's restive north.

“The Myitsone dam project continues,” the KDNG said in a press release dated March 2. “An electric transformer is being built in Nawng Hkying village of Waimaw Township. Some CPI workers are still at the dam site and in Myitkyina, and there is still equipment at the dam site. Road and bridge construction to deliver supplies to the seven dam project also continues.”

Located at the confluence of the Irrawaddy River, the 6,000-megawatt project is financed by state-backed China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) at an estimated cost of some US $3.6 billion. However, following a massive grassroots campaign opposed to the dam, President Thein Sein announced last year that the project would be suspended for at least his tenure as president.

“The president has not mentioned the other six dams planned for the May Hka and Mali Hka [rivers] which will have the same impacts to the Irrawaddy River and downstream people as the Myitsone dam,” said the KDNG. “Massive gold mining and logging is going on upstream of Myitsone. These destructive activities are also threatening the future of the Irrawaddy River.”

The KDNG statement coincides with reports from Kachin State that CPI has launched a campaign of its own—to quell opposition to the megadam and to enlist support for its restart from among residents living near the site and in state capital Myitkyina.

On March 1, Francis Wade, writing for Asian Correspondent, wrote that technicians and workers remain at the Myitsone site while security has been beefed up. Work on the road linking the dam to the Chinese border also continues, he said, citing local reports.

The KDNG claims that since the suspension of the dam, villagers relocated to make way for the project have not been permitted to return to their villages. The 1,000 families from five villages returned to the Myitsone area on Feb. 24 “to call for the permanent cancellation of the Irrawaddy dams and to be allowed to officially return home without fear of relocation.”

The Myitsone area villagers invited high-profile activists, including 88 Generation leader Min Ko Naing, as well as other released political prisoners, artists and journalists, to participate in a local ceremony at which Christian church members “collected stones from the Irrawaddy and built walls to protect their sacred places from the dam project.”

Three of the five villages that were evacuated to facilitate the dam—Taungban, Mazup and Lahpye—have been completely bulldozed and destroyed.

“In Tanghpre, all public buildings including schools and orange orchards, were destroyed in order to discourage people from returning home,” said the KDNG statement. “Despite this destruction, some villagers continue to resist being moved to the relocation camp and remain in their original villages.”

However, the Democratic Voice of Burma reported on Monday that a number of families from the village of Taunghtwat had returned home.

The KDNG said in its statement that those villagers who remain in the relocation camps “are facing difficulties ... mainly due to lack of land and livelihoods. The houses provided in the camp are not good quality and very little compensation was given. Some people are leaving the relocation camp in order to find work and survive.”