Dams and other hydropower projects (global, regional)

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Description: Formerly International Rivers Network (IRN)..."International Rivers? mission is to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them. We oppose destructive dams and the development model they advance, and encourage better ways of meeting people?s needs for water, energy and protection from damaging floods. To achieve this mission, we collaborate with a global network of local communities, social movements, non-governmental organizations and other partners. Through research, education and advocacy, International Rivers works to halt destructive river infrastructure projects, address the legacies of existing projects, improve development policies and practices, and promote water and energy solutions for a just and sustainable world. The primary focus of our work is in the global South..."...Some articles and reports on Burma
Source/publisher: International Rivers
Date of entry/update: 2008-04-26
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "By the end of the 20th century, the dam industry had choked more than half of the Earth?s major rivers with some 50,000 large dams. The consequences of this massive engineering program have been devastating. The world?s large dams have wiped out species; flooded huge areas of wetlands, forests and farmlands; and displaced tens of millions of people. The "one-size-fits-all" approach to meeting the world?s water and energy needs is also outdated: better solutions exist. While not every dam causes huge problems, cumulatively the world?s large dams have replumbed rivers in a massive experiment that has left the planet?s freshwaters in far worse shape than any other major ecosystem type, including tropical rainforests. In response, dam-affected communities in many parts of the world are working to resolve the legacies of poorly planned dams. Elsewhere (and especially in North America), communities are starting to take down dams that have outlived their usefulness, as part of a broader river restoration movement....Dam Basics:- Frequently Asked Questions: Watch We All Live Downstream for a visual introduction to dams, rivers and people... Read 10 Things You Should Know About Dams... Read "Greenwashing Hydropower": The Problems with Big Dams..... Watch Hydropower: Not As Clean As You Think for an introduction to why big dams are not the answer to our changing climate.... Fact sheets: Damned Rivers, Damned Lives: The case against large dams... A Crisis of Mismanagement: Real solutions to the world?s water problems... Beyond Hydropower: Energy options for the 21st century... Warming the Earth: Hydropower threatens efforts to curb climate change... The Coming Storm: Preparing for a warming water world..... Latest additions: Twelve Dams That Changed the World... The State of the World?s Rivers... Large Dams Are Uneconomic, Scientific Study Finds... Hydropower: WRR Commentary: Know Thy River.
Source/publisher: International Rivers
Date of entry/update: 2015-09-02
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance/Foundation for Ecological Recovery (TERRA/FER), believe that public debate on, and participation in, decisions concerning environment and development is a crucial first step in forging paths towards a more equitable and sustainable future for all people in the Mekong region. This means that civil society must play a strong role in shaping national and regional development policy process. In supporting the work of civil society groups in the region, we have undertaken a range of activities, including participatory research, internships, field studies and exchange. We also engage in campaign and monitoring activities to address development projects, programmes and policies that have negative implications for local people and the environment..."
Source/publisher: TERRA
Date of entry/update: 2014-09-17
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Sub-title: Locals say they were forced to evacuate overnight.
Description: "More than 30,000 residents were forced to leave their homes and belongings behind in Myanmar’s southern Mandalay region after their villages were unexpectedly flooded. While parts of Madaya township face yearly flooding from the nearby Ayeyarwady River, residents told Radio Free Asia that this year’s quickly rising water levels came as a surprise. After continuous rain that began on Tuesday, local officials released excess water from Se Taw Gyi dam without alerting residents. “The villages that are flooded every year are now facing severe flooding from both the river and the dam. Even the villages where water does not normally reach are flooded now,” said a relief worker from Myanmar Rescue Madaya who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. “We are helping from village to village and anti-regime defense forces are also helping. But relief is weak.” Residents evacuated on the night of Oct. 12 into Wednesday morning, a local of Tha Pyay Chaung village told RFA. “There are many villages that are flooded. Villages that were not normally flooded [before] are flooded now. In the past, they [officials] used to inform the people by letter when they were about to release water from the dam,” said the local. “People are facing trouble now because they were not informed. The water went up to five feet (1.5 meters) in the house last night and we had to leave behind our belongings that we could not take.” The affected villages also include Inn Ta Khar, Waw Su, Wun Su, Oke Taik, Oke Set, Pan Kan Su and Ah Htet Taung Kaing villages. The resident said victims’ livestock are also being relocated to higher ground. In flooded rural areas where antivenom can be scarce, he added that displaced victims were particularly concerned about being bitten by poisonous snakes common in the country’s dry zone. RFA called Thein Htay, Mandalay region’s economic minister and junta council spokesman, seeking comment on flooding in Madaya township, but he did not respond on Friday. Madaya township faced similar flooding in 2017 from Se Taw Gyi dam. Floods from heavy rain have also been affecting areas of Bago division, northern Shan and Mon states due to rising water levels in rivers since the second week of October..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia" (USA)
2023-10-13
Date of entry/update: 2023-10-13
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Description: "Due to the negative development in Myanmar with deteriorating human rights situation and on the back of an enhanced human rights due diligence process, AFRY has decided to end its commitment in hydropower projects in Myanmar. Following the UN report: Situation of human rights in Myanmar since 1 February 2022, which was published in March 2023, AFRY has re-assessed its engagement in the country. The report concludes that the human rights situation has worsened during the last year and recommends that any engagement in Myanmar should undergo an enhanced human rights due diligence process. AFRY has been present in Myanmar for over twenty years, having worked on several hydropower projects, all aiming to accelerate the transition to a clean and stable energy system in the country. UN global development goal number seven declares that access to clean and affordable energy is key to the development of agriculture, business, communications, education, healthcare, and transportation. The lack of access to energy hinders economic and human development. In Myanmar, 30 percent of the population still lack access to energy. AFRY is currently involved in three hydropower projects in Myanmar, whereof one project is active. The contracts were signed before the military coup in February 2021 and AFRY has not signed any additional contracts after that. We have evaluated our presence in the country, international sanctions, the client with regards to the military regime, safety of our employees, environmental and social impact relating to the ongoing projects, and whether we are able to complete our engagement without being complicit or provide direct or indirect support of the military or other operations that violate human rights. Our conclusion is that AFRY has not contributed to any violations of human rights, we have ensured stronger safeguards for the environment through our engineering competence and the hydropower projects have contributed to a cleaner energy system. Nevertheless, AFRY’s assignments will be ended at the latest by the end of this year due to the negative development in the country, while we continue to monitor the situation closely..."
Source/publisher: AFRY (Sweden)
2023-04-21
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-28
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Description: "Swedish-Finnish engineering services supplier AFRY has withdrawn from Myanmar’s hydropower projects, citing the junta’s human rights abuses. The business cited last month’s UN report recommended that firms operating in Myanmar should study the junta’s rights record. AFRY has operated in Myanmar for over 20 years, working on 13 hydropower projects, including three incomplete schemes, the company stated on April 21. The Nordic firm was paid US$4.7 million in service fees for consulting on the Upper Yeywa and Middle Paunglaung projects from February 2021 to September 2022, according to Justice For Myanmar (JFM), based on leaked tax filings from the whistleblower website Distributed Denial of Secrets. The 280-megawatt Upper Yeywa dam project on the Namtu River was planned under the earlier military dictatorship in 2008 and has been opposed by residents for its devastating social and environmental impacts, lack of transparency, the threat to ancestral lands and for fuelling of conflict. In 2020 the Shan Human Rights Foundation documented rights violations by the military near the project, including extrajudicial killing and torture. The group called on foreign companies to withdraw from the project or risk complicity in atrocities. In December the Namtu River Protectors, a community network, warned that more than 40,000 residents would face flooding because of the project. The 152MW Middle Paunglaung River dam near Naypyidaw is also due to displace large numbers of villagers. JFM has called on AFRY and other companies involved to suspend work in Myanmar until the establishment of a federal democracy and called for them to explain their involvement with the regime. AFRY has been the engineering consultant for 13 hydropower projects in Myanmar and delivered in-house engineering service to the Nancho, Thaythay, Upper Yeywa, Kun and Upper Keng Tawng projects. Feasibility studies, detailed designs and construction services were also provided for the Deedoke, Shweli, Tamanthi, Middle Yeywa and Upper and Middle Paunglaung projects. It has also provided geological investigations, construction site supervision and advisory services for the junta’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy on transmission lines and thermal projects. “The contracts were signed before the military coup in February 2021 and AFRY has not signed any additional contracts after that. We have evaluated our presence in the country, international sanctions, the client with regards to the military regime, safety of our employees, environmental and social impact relating to the ongoing projects,” AFRY’s statement said. It said it has not contributed to any violations of human rights and it has ensured stronger environmental safeguards through its engineering competence while the hydropower projects have provided cleaner energy. “Nevertheless, AFRY’s assignments will be ended at the latest by the end of this year due to the negative development in the country, while we continue to monitor the situation closely,” the firm said..."
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Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-04-28
Date of entry/update: 2023-04-28
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Description: "Today, on the International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams, we celebrate the healthy rivers that play a vital role in our lives, and call on governments, social organizations, and people around the world to stand united in protecting our rivers. Rivers provide water for agriculture, drinking, and food production and they provide essential ecosystem services for humanity. They are also important for the protection of biodiversity and survival of countless trees, flora, and fauna species. However, living rivers are facing threats due to the building of dams and extraction of water and natural resources. In particular, large-scale hydropower projects built on rivers in Myanmar are having negative effects on the environment and people in river basins. Large-scale development projects in Myanmar are ignoring the rights of Indigenous and local peoples; their participation rights and rights to their lands. Their rights are not recognised by the centralized system of governance in Myanmar. During the two years since the military coup, environmental damage has increased in Myanmar’s ethnic areas, while civic spaces and mechanisms for taking urgent action have broken down. After the coup, the State Administration Council (SAC) leader announced the resumption of the Hatgyi dam project on the Salween river in Karen state. Military conflicts have occurred at the proposed Hatgyi Dam site since 2014. Gold mining in rivers, and river sand extraction activities have poisoned the waters and impacted local communities and the environment along the river. Along with militarized development, local people are also losing their livelihoods, homes, and lives due to the military’s air and ground attacks and many are hiding in forests. Humanitarian aid is urgently needed. We, Karen Rivers Watch, Karen indigenous people, and Karen civil society partner organizations call upon international governments, UN agencies, investors, and individuals to preserve our healthy rivers and their ecosystems, and halt all large-scale hydropower projects on Myanmar’s rivers, which have significant social and environmental impacts. This is especially important at a time when climate change already contributes greatly to environmental degradation. Today, on the International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams, we celebrate the beauty and power of living rivers and renew our commitments to protect them for all people and the planet. We make the following demands: Karen Nation Union must: Oppose all large-scale development and resource extraction projects that confiscate lands, destroy forests and threaten local livelihoods. Implement their existing environmental policies and protect rivers, forests resources, endangered species and valuable resources. Take action to prevent large business interests profiteering from Kawthoolei’s natural resources. Resist the military dictatorship, which is perpetuating the centralized system which exploits the resources of ethnic groups, and instead encourage and support local management systems. National Unity Consultative Council must: Begin implementing policies to develop a federal resource management system that respects the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic nationalities. Blacklist companies and entrepreneurs who invest in or implement natural resources extraction projects which financially support the military. Cooperate with civil society organizations to advocate to the international community. International organizations, donors, and UN agencies must: Terminate all loan programs to companies attempting to build Mega-dam projects that will damage people’s livelihoods and the environment. Provide cross-border humanitarian aid to those affected by the ongoing conflicts in Burma through ethnics existing infrastructures..."
Source/publisher: Karen Environmental and Social Action Network
2023-03-14
Date of entry/update: 2023-03-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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: "Chinese dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in the countries downstream of the Mekong River – known as the Lancang in China – despite higher-than-average water levels upstream, according to a US research company. China’s government disputed the findings of the US-government funded study, saying there was low rainfall during last year’s monsoon season on its portion of the 4,350km (2,700 mile) river. The findings by Eyes on Earth, a research and consulting company specialising in water, could complicate tricky discussions between China and other Mekong countries on how to manage the river that supports 60 million people as it flows past Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and through Cambodia and Vietnam. Last year’s drought, which saw the Lower Mekong at its lowest levels in more than 50 years, devastated farmers and fishermen and saw the massive river recede to expose sandbanks along some stretches. At others the river turned from its usual murky brown to bright blue because the waters were so shallow..."
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
2020-04-13
Date of entry/update: 2020-05-19
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Description: "As societies around the world focus on containing the spread of the novel coronavirus, millions of people in Southeast Asia have another worry on their minds: How to put food on their table amid a devastating drought. In Thailand, historically low levels of rainfall since last summer have taken a heavy toll on the agriculture sector, which employs 11 million people. Inland fishing communities across the region are reporting drastically smaller catches. And in Vietnam, a state of emergency was declared earlier this month in five provinces in the southern Mekong Delta, which produces more than half of the country’s rice on just 12 percent of its land area. The proximate cause of the drought is last summer’s El Nino, characterized by above-average water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean that alter weather patterns around the world. For much of Southeast Asia, this meant an uncharacteristically dry monsoon season last year, as the heavy rains that typically start in late May or early June never really arrived. That came on the heels of a similar weather event in 2015 that also caused severe drought in the region. Studies have found that climate change is making intense El Nino events more common. The impact of the current drought has been particularly severe for the Mekong River, one of Asia’s most vital waterways, which is seeing some of its lowest water levels in recorded history. From its source in the Tibetan plateau, the Mekong runs roughly 3,000 miles through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, sustaining the livelihoods of roughly 60 million people along the way. In addition to the current drought, the river has long suffered from the effects of climate change and the construction of hydropower dams along its mainstream and tributaries. As a result, many experts are concerned about its long-term ecological viability..."
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Source/publisher: "World Politics Review (WPR)"
2020-03-27
Date of entry/update: 2020-04-24
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Topic: Myanmar; hydropower; dams; environmental governance; democratisation; activism.
Topic: Myanmar; hydropower; dams; environmental governance; democratisation; activism.
Description: "Although general elections in Myanmar (Burma) in November 2010 have transformed the political landscape, many of the characters remain the same. While there is evidence of incremental domestic political openings many of the political constraints that existed during military rule remain in force. As a consequence of decades of military authoritarian governance and civil conflict, it is Myanmar’s contested ethnic borderlands that have been the important locales for the development of environmental movements, despite increased recent domestic activity. This article analyses a case study of the largely cross-border campaign against hydropower dams on the Salween River in Myanmar and finds that through the suppression of opposition and dissent at home the regime has stimulated the creation of an ‘activist diaspora’, a dynamic transnational community of expatriates who engage in environmental activism beyond the reach of the regime. Due to their relative freedom on the border and in Thailand this community has developed expertise and international networks that have proved crucial in communicating the social and environmental impacts of hydropower development in Myanmar to the international community. Through increased cooperation with an expanding domestic civil society this established activist community is stimulating improved environmental governance of hydropower development and simultaneously assisting in the creation of a more open and democratic Myanmar..."
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Source/publisher: The Pacific Review
2013-02-18
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "China on Thursday said it was helping its downstream neighbors cope with a prolonged drought by releasing more water from its dams on the Mekong River, adding it would consider sharing information on hydrology to provide further assistance in the future. The statement came as a new economic report predicted that the building of dams to harness hydropower on the Mekong River would reshape the economies of five countries along the waterway, fueling long-term inflation and dependence on China. The drought over the past year has severely hurt farming and fishing in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, and many blame China’s 11 dams on the upper Mekong – which China calls the Lancang River – as well as climate change. Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said a lack of rain was the main cause of the drought and said China had suffered from it too. “China has overcome its own difficulty and increased water outflow from the Lancang River to help Mekong countries mitigate the drought,” Wang told a meeting of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) grouping..."
Source/publisher: "National Post" (Canada)
2020-02-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-02-22
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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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Description: "Two hydropower dam projects proposed on the Laymyo River in Chin and Rakhine states would negatively affect more than 20,000 people, according to Chin Rivers Watch (CRW). The dams on the Laymyo—one near Ko Phe She village in Chin State’s Paletwa Township and one near Sai Din village in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U Township—have been under consideration since 2007. They were initially backed by neighboring Bangladesh, and set to be built by the Chinese company Datang. The projects were put on pause in 2014. In 2016, after the current National League for Democracy government came to power, the French government allocated US$1 million for a feasibility study on the Laymyo dams, which was carried out by the Belgian-French company Tractebel-Engie. In a press conference in Yangon on November 4, CRW representatives said that the feasibility study had again been resumed. CRW secretary Mang Za Hkop said that the pursuit of such mega development projects was inappropriately given the current political circumstances in Burma. “We don’t want the government to start projects like this until protection laws have been drawn up for ethnic rights and citizens’ rights,” Mang Za Hkop, the CRW secretary, said..."
Source/publisher: "Network Media Group" (Thailand)
2019-11-07
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-08
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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..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2019-04-08
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
2019-01-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "South China Morning Post" (Hong Kong)
2019-10-21
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Local people living in areas that would be affected by proposed hydropower dams on the Namtu/Myitnge River in northern Shan State protested on Thursday against a meeting held to discuss the impact of the project. The meeting took place at the Mountain Star Hotel in the state capital Taunggyi and was organized by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group headquartered in Washington, D.C. “We oppose the IFC meeting because there are still many clashes in the area where they want to build the dams,” said protester Nang Lao Kham, who is a resident of Panglong, a village on the bank of the Namtu River. According to Nang Lao Kham, the protesters sent an open letter to the IFC to highlight three reasons that local people are opposed to the project. “There is still a conflict going on in northern Shan State, so this is not the right time to build a hydropower dam. Also, only the authorities from Naypyitaw have any decision-making power over the project—our own state chief minister has no say, and neither do the people of Shan State. And dam construction will damage the environment, which will cause local people to suffer,” said Nang Lao Kham..."
Source/publisher: "Network Media Group" (Thailand)
2019-09-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Locals in northern Shan State’s Hsipaw Township say that they are ready to stand against a planned hydropower dam on the Nam Ma River because of its potential impact on their livelihoods and environment. The Yangon-based Unienergy Co. Ltd. plans to build a dam at the junction of the Nam Ma and Nam Paung rivers near Hseng Liang village in Hsipaw Township. Company representatives went to the area on October 10 to discuss the highly contested project with villagers, who blocked them from entering their village and in turn protested the dam. “If they build a hydropower dam, orange farms and many trees which are nearby the river will be gone underwater,” Sai Thein Myint, who lives in the Nam Ma area, told NMG. “Many local people who are living on the banks of Nam Ma River will have to relocate their homes. I am sure these houses will be underwater after the completion of the dam construction.” Locals said they had no desire to meet with Unienergy company staff and stand by their position against the project..."
Source/publisher: "Network Media Group" (Thailand)
2019-10-12
Date of entry/update: 2019-10-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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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Topic: Tanintharyi River, Karen, Karen National Union, International Finance Corporation, Myanmar, Environment
Topic: Tanintharyi River, Karen, Karen National Union, International Finance Corporation, Myanmar, Environment
Description: "The lack of transparency surrounding plans to construct dams on the Tanintharyi River in southern Myanmar, and the impact it will have on the livelihoods of the Karen – the area’s indigenous people – is set to add more tension to an area already filled with strife. While there are 18 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) for dams on the Tanintharyi River – one of southern Myanmar’s largest free-flowing waterways – local communities have received no information on their location, size or status according to a report by three civil society groups last week; Candle Light Youth Group, Southern Youth and Tarkapaw Youth Group. The report titled ‘Blocking a Bloodline: Indigenous Communities along the Tanintharyi River Fear the Impact of Large-Scale Dams’ also notes that 32,008 people from 76 villages living directly along the river depend on it as a vital source of food, water, transportation and cultural expression – all of which are at risk due to plans to build a 1,040 megawatt (MW) hydropower project by Thai-owned Greater Mekong Sub-region Power Public Co Ltd (GMS)..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The ASEAN Post"
2019-08-15
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-18
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
Language:
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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
Language:
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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
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Description: "This History Thread is about the mighty rivers that have defined Myanmar (Burma.) North-south river valley geology shaped regional history. #Rivers, their tributaries & watersheds continue to have enormous political, agricultural & environmental importance. #dams #biodiversity From 12th C. BCE populations migrated along #Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady), #Chindwin, #Salween river valleys to settle in lands that are now known as Myanmar (Burma.) Powerful dynasties rose and fell along the Irrawaddy, including Pyu, Pagan, Ava. British made river port Rangoon (Yangon) colonial capital in 1853. Burma became “rice bowl of Asia” under their exploitation especially in fertile Irrawaddy Delta. River inundation/irrigation can augment monsoon rain for wet rice cultivation. Padi harvest transported by river..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Project Maje"
2019-05-22
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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
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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
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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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Sub-title: While Tatmadaw and Kachin Independence Army soldiers face off in a long-running conflict, a company owned by the Kachin armed group has been profiting from the sale of power to government-controlled Myitkyina and Waingmaw townships.
Description: "This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. For nearly two decades following its 1994 ceasefire, the Kachin Independence Organisation built up a business empire that intertwined formally with the state. The vehicle for many of these businesses is Buga Co Ltd, which the KIO’s economic department registered with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration in early 1995. But after the resumption of conflict in June 2011, many of Buga’s businesses unraveled or were forced into the black economy. A sugar factory in Namatee, Mogaung Township, was forced to stop operations later in 2011. A tourism office at Laiza, where the KIO is based, that sought to encourage visits by Chinese and Myanmar tourists has long ago shuttered. The company has also been forced to scale back its mining concessions, including at jade-rich Hpakant. But one Buga business has continued to prosper: electricity production and distribution. Since 2007, it has been selling electricity to government-controlled areas of the state under a 20-year agreement struck with the former military regime. While a cascade of China-backed megadams has been planned for Kachin State, the projects have been stalled by local opposition and the conflict between the Tatmadaw and KIO. As a result, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy produces only minimal amounts of electricity in Kachin State and there is little transmission capacity to import power produced elsewhere in Myanmar. Other regions are also facing their own supply shortages, particularly during hot season..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-08-26
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-26
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
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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
Grouping: Individual Documents
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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
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "If China wants to fish in Myanmar’s troubled waters, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)-linked Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Rakhine State is a good place to cast a line; those projects will face as much controversy and objection as did the Myitsone dam near Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital, said Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association (KRDA) coordinator U Tun Kyi. “Whoever accepts Chinese projects, if those (projects) do not bring positive impacts to the Arakanese people, then we will definitely oppose them, as was done in the Myitsone campaign,” he said. His message comes after a three-day visit to Kyakphyu in July by Chinese ambassador Chen Hai, who was appointed ambassador to Myanmar just a few months ago. The Kyaukphyu visit was his first to a BRI-related project in the country. Conflict between the Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar’s military (or Tatmadaw) has racked Rakhine State for months, displacing more than 50,000 so far and killing more than 70 local Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims since the beginning of the year. Eight townships in the north of the state—home to more than a million people—have been living without internet access since June 21 under the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government’s internet shutdown. With the human rights situation in Rakhine State sharply deteriorating, the Chinese diplomat’s decision to visit Kyaukphyu raised eyebrows among Arakanese business circles and with observers and lawmakers, who wondered if the visit had a hidden agenda behind it..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy"
2019-08-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-22
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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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: Some worry that despite financial and social costs, much of the electricity proposed dam will generate will be exported.
Description: "Myanmar government officials claim a hydroelectricity project along the Tanintharyi River could significantly benefit the Southeast Asian nation. But new research by a trio of human rights organisations offers a dark contrast to that bright picture. Almost 7,000 people could be displaced if a dam is built along the river, according to a joint report, Blocking a Bloodline, by Candle Light, Southern Youth, and the Tarkapaw Youth Group. "These approximately 7,000 people will lose everything they know, including their way of life, community and kinship, ancestral history, local use of natural resources, and their lands," Human Rights Watch's Asia Deputy Director Phil Robertson wrote in an email to Al Jazeera. "If this [project] goes forward, [the villagers] will mark the first day of their displacement as the start of the worst period of their lives, when their rights were trod on by the Myanmar government and they were shuffled off to a wholly inadequate resettlement area where quality land, water, services, and support are entirely lacking." The reports suggest the project will alter the livelihoods of the Karen, the area's indigenous people. This dam could "irreversibly alter the lives of up to 32,000 people living along it," the authors write. They predict that not only could up to 32 upstream villages be displaced, but 58,500 hectares of land would likely be destroyed..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Al Jazeera"
2019-08-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Sub-title: Indigenous people called for a large dam project to be halted on the Tanintharyi River, based on the findings of two reports released by local people on Friday.
Description: "The devastating impact that a proposed 1040-megawatt dam would have on the river and the communities along it were outlined in the report, “Blocking a Bloodline: Indigenous Communities along the Tanintharyi River Fear the Impact of Large-Scale Dams.” Naw Paw Say Wah, director of Candle Light, said they estimate that construction of the dam could displace up to 7000 people in 32 villages along the upstream reaches of the Tanintharyi River. “This dam will also have serious effects on the lives and livelihoods of over 23,000 people who live downstream of the proposed project,” she added. The dam proposal put forward by Thai-owned GMS Co., along with 17 other dam proposals on the river have been developed without the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities, and threaten to destroy their primary source of water, food and transportation, according to the reports. The report, based on surveys of over 1200 people living along the Tanintharyi River, highlights the importance of the river to community livelihoods, access to water, transportation and cultural practices. It presents the impact that the dam proposals would have on the lives of indigenous people, forests and biodiversity, and the future of peace and stability in the region. “We local people must be included in all decision-making regarding our territories because we have the knowledge and ability to manage our own resources,” said U Ye Aung, a member of Rays of Kamoethway Indigenous People and Nature..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Myanmar Times"
2019-08-14
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-14
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "YANGON — Plans to build dams on the Tanintharyi River would affect about 32,000 people in communities that have never been adequately consulted, according to a report by three Karen civil society groups that calls for a halt to the projects. The report says there are 18 memorandums of understanding to build dams on the river, but “local communities have received no information on their location, size or status”. It calls on the Tanintharyi regional government to provide full information to affected communities and civil society about the planned dams, which it says could also have a catastrophic impact on aquatic ecosystems and vast pristine forests, and pose a threat to the peace process. The report, Blocking a bloodline: Indigenous communities along the Tanintharyi River fear the impact of large scale dams, compiled by the Candle Light Youth Group, Southern Youth and Tarkapaw Youth Group, was released in Yangon on August 9 to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The waterway, one of southern Myanmar’s largest free-flowing rivers, forms at the confluence of the Ban and Kamoethway rivers in Tanintharyi’s Dawei District and flows along the Tanintharyi Valley before emptying into the Andaman Sea at Myeik. The river is the bloodline of 32,008 people from 6,118 households, who live in 76 villages along its banks and depend on it as a vital source of food, water and transportation, the report says..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-08-09
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "In 1993, the construction of the P?Thi Dam led to land confiscations and widespread displacement. Stripped of their land, many subsistence farmers became day wage labourers, working under difficult conditions. This land confiscation continues to impact the livelihoods of local people to this day. The displaced communities have yet to receive any compensation, or even to benefit from a connection to electricity. Despite this, villagers continue to reclaim their ancestral lands through consultation and court hearings. Since the construction of the hydropower dam, this community has faced a series of successive land confiscations by private companies. The remaining land has been confiscated by the Tatmadaw. Local plantations are being used for shooting practice, threatening the security of local farmers. The community wants the Tatmadaw to withdraw the camp from their lands..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2018-11-13
Date of entry/update: 2018-11-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Format : pdf
Size: 382.48 KB
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Description: "Abstract. Dams as well as protective dikes and levees are critical infrastructures whose associated risk must be properly managed in a continuous and updated process. Usually, dam safety management has been carried out assuming stationary 10 climatic and non-climatic conditions. However, the projected alterations due to climate change are likely to affect different factors driving dam risk. Although some reference institutions develop guidance for including climate change in their decision support strategies, related information is still vast and scattered and its application to specific analyses such as dam safety assessments remains a challenge. This article presents a comprehensive and multidisciplinary review of the impacts of climate change susceptible to affect 15 dam safety. The global effect can be assessed through the integration of the various projected effects acting on each aspect of the risk, from the input hydrology to the calculation of the consequences of the flood wave on population and assets at risk. This will provide useful information for dam owners and dam safety practitioners in their decision-making process."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
2018-05-18
Date of entry/update: 2018-06-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Collectively, reservoirs created by dams are thought to be an important source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere. So far, efforts to quantify, model, and manage these emissions have been limited by data availability and inconsistencies in methodological approach. Here, we synthesize reservoir CH4, CO2, and N2O emission data with three main objectives: (1) to generate a global estimate of GHG emissions from reservoirs, (2) to identify the best predictors of these emissions, and (3) to consider the effect of methodology on emission estimates. We estimate that GHG emissions from reservoir water surfaces account for 0.8 (0.5?1.2) Pg CO2 equivalents per year, with the majority of this forcing due to CH4. We then discuss the potential for several alternative pathways such as dam degassing and downstream emissions to contribute significantly to overall emissions. Although prior studies have linked reservoir GHG emissions to reservoir age and latitude, we find that factors related to reservoir productivity are better predictors of emission."
Creator/author: Bridget R. Deemer, John A. Harrison, Siyue Li, Jake J. Beaulieu, Tonya DelSontro, Nathan Barros, José F. Bezerra-Neto, Stephen M. Powers, Marco A. dos Santos, J. Arie Vonk
Source/publisher: BioScience (2016) 66 (11): 949-964.
2016-10-05
Date of entry/update: 2017-04-26
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "This section outlines Chinese law governing domestic dam building, Chinese policies on overseas dams, and international guidelines that can be applied to Chinese overseas dam projects. Excerpts from important laws and policies are found in Appendix 2."
Source/publisher: International Rivers
2012-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.43 MB
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Description: "The authors discuss progress, challenges and legal aspects in relation to the development of cross-border hydropower schemes in Asia,with particular lessons that can be learned from the Lao PDR-Thailand model. As these countries were pioneers for power trading based on hydropower development, their path to partnership has relevance for others throughout the region, such as Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, and also the Indian Sub-Continent (India, Bhutan and Nepal)."
Creator/author: D. D. Doran, M. Christensen
Source/publisher: International Journal of Hydropower and Dams, Volume 21, Issue 2
2014-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-02-23
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 268.24 KB
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Description: Introduction: "This might refer to our relationship with the environment just as well as to that between a man and a woman. Our relationship with the environment requires careful attention for we must take care of it if we want it to reciprocate. Around the globe today, that relationship is being challenged. We are here in a wondrous and wonderful part of the world. This sketch of Asia?s major rivers flowing down from the Tibetan plateau illustrates just how central our location is, both geographically and in terms of the hundreds of millions of human lives and other biological phenomena impacted by the flow of these waters. The river of concern for me today is the Salween, in some locations called the Nu Jiang or the Thanlwin. Lately my focus has been on Myanmar (Burma) and its current struggles to emerge form a long period of difficult political and economic conditions. Many, dare I say all of us, desire to help this great country to achieve higher levels of prosperity and sustainable well-­being. One focal point for many has become the Salween..." .....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­25 July 2015
Creator/author: James Lin Compton
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­25 July 2015
2015-07-25
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-06
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 85.38 KB
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Description: Abstract: "A brisk building boom of hydropower mega-dams is underway from China to Brazil. Whether benefits of new dams will outweigh costs remains unresolved despite contentious debates. We investigate this question with the ?outside view? or ?reference class forecasting? based on literature on decision-making under uncertainty in psychology. We find overwhelming evidence that budgets are systematically biased below actual costs of large hydropower dams—excluding inflation, substantial debt servicing, environmental, and social costs. Using the largest and most reliable reference data of its kind and multilevel statistical techniques applied to large dams for the first time, we were successful in fitting parsimonious models to predict cost and schedule overruns. The outside view suggests that in most countries large hydropower dams will be too costly in absolute terms and take too long to build to deliver a positive risk- adjusted return unless suitable risk management measures outlined in this paper can be affordably provided. Policymakers, particularly in developing countries, are advised to prefer agile energy alternatives that can be built over shorter time horizons to energy megaprojects"....Keywords: Large hydropower dams, Schedule and cost estimates, Cost–benefit forecasting, Reference class forecasting, Outside view."
Creator/author: Atif Ansa, Bent Flyvbjerg, Alexander Budzie, Daniel Lunn
Source/publisher: "Energy Policy" (ElsevierLtd,) March 2014
2014-03-10
Date of entry/update: 2014-09-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 591.13 KB
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Description: "Chinese dam builders have come to dominate the world market. Civil society groups have expressed concerns about the social and environmental impacts of numerous Chinese dams in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This NGO guide published by International Rivers presents the lessons of past experience and informs interested NGOs how they can best influence the projects and policies of Chinese dam builders and advocate for social and environmental interests. This guide provides useful information for groups concerned about dam projects in which Chinese companies and financiers are involved, including: *A "who?s who" among Chinese companies and financiers; *Laws and standards in the Chinese dam building sector; *A map of China?s major overseas dam projects; *The new environmental policy of Sinohydro, the world?s largest dam-builder; *An action guide for how to address problematic dams built by Chinese companies and financiers, and who to reach out to for help; *Case studies of how NGOs have influenced Chinese overseas projects; and *A sample letter to a Chinese dam building company... Translations into Chinese and Spanish are planned for early 2013. Please contact us if you would like to organize a civil society training with the new guide, or suggest translations into other languages.
Source/publisher: International Rivers
2012-11-26
Date of entry/update: 2013-01-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 4.27 MB
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Description: This report by Green November 32 in 1993 was the first ever NGO perspective report written on the Yadana gas pipeline and on the border dams as they were first discussed by Thai and Burmese governments around that time. It was actually one of the first detailed reports on any of the post 1988 environmental issues by any Burmese- or border- based organisation, and is of particular interest in the light of the current opposition to the Irrawaddy dam projects... "Officials of the Thai government and the SLORC military regime have for some years now been planning a series of huge energy joint ventures to be undertaken in some of the most fought over territory in Burma. The energy projects, if they are endorsed by the Thai Government - and implemented with the participation of Japanese and Western corporations - will have extremely serious, possibly even terminal repercussions for the Burmese pro-democracy movement which is based in these same areas of the Burma -Thai border. Indeed, this seems to be what a number of the proponents of the development projects intend to achieve, particularly the generals in Rangoon. The SLORC, as well as politicians, military men and businessmen in Thailand and abroad would garner great benefit from the destruction of the Burmese opposition groups along the border, and the opening of the way to even more unrestrained natural resource exploitation than is currently taking place. There are ten planned energy development joint ventures, comprising two offshore natural gasfield developments and eight hydro-electric dams. These are: •The Martaban Gasfield developments led by Total CFP of France •The Yetagun Gasfield exploratory program led by Texaco of the US •The Upper Salween Dam, •The Lower Salween Dam •The Nam Kok Project •The Nam Moei 3 Project •The Nam Moei 2 Project •The Klong Kra Project •The Nam Moei 1 Project, and •The Nam Mae Sai Project... The energy projects will lead to environmental and social havoc on a scale comparable to the largest development projects in the world. Indeed, the Upper Salween Dam will be among the largest in the world. Altogether the projects will directly result in the flooding and deforesting of thousands of square kilometers of the forests bordering Burma and Thailand. The projects will displace many thousands of indigenous peoples, some of them already refugees from the forty-five years of bloody civil war in Burma. Many have already been affected by military operations of the SLORC and Thai armies, operations which can easily be seen in the context of clearing the way for the development of the 820-1,000 kilometre gas pipeline or the construction of the eight dams... The energy projects will put billions of dollars into the control of an ultra-nationalist military regime that is one of the world?s worst human rights violators and that is rapidly building up a large and extraordinarily aggressive army which poses a significant threat to the stability of the region. The massive input of funds from the Western and Japanese multinational oil and energy development companies, combined with the cheap sale and presents of Chinese weaponry, and the profits from the heroin traffic that the SLORC is alleged to control, has funded this huge expansion of the SLORC armed forces... The energy joint ventures will, if signed, mark the second and higher level of engagement in the much criticised ASEAN policy of "constructive engagement" towards the SLORC regime, which through the activities of the logging, oil and fishing companies have already caused untold damage to Burma?s environment. The multinational corporations, the Keidanrens and the Thai state oil and electricity institutes PTT and EGAT are therefore amongst the most powerful influences supporting the SLORC in its brutal and undemocratic suppression of the peoples of Burma."
Source/publisher: Green November 32
1993-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2011-09-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.3 MB
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Description: "Even disregarding the social and environmental problems caused by big dams, they tend to be a net-liability in economic terms—especially in developing countries..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 12, No. 6
2004-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-10-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: Introductory Pages - PDF (823k) Chair?s Preface Commissioners? Foreword Table of Contents List of Tables List of Figures List of Boxes Acknowledgements Acronyms and Abbreviations Executive Summary - PDF (142k) Chapter 1: Water, Development and Large Dams - PDF (1,358k) Water and Development Development and Large Dams Large Dams as Instruments of Development Problems Associated with Large Dams Understanding the Large Dams Debate Fulfilling the WCD Mandate ? Process and Methodology PART I: THE WCD GLOBAL REVIEW OF LARGE DAMS Chapter 2: Technical, Financial and Economic Performance - PDF (603k) Structure and Methodology Construction Costs and Schedules Irrigation Dams Hydropower Dams Water Supply Dams Flood Control Dams Multi-Purpose Dams Physical Sustainability Issues Findings and Lessons Chapter 3: Ecosystems and Large Dams: Environmental Performance - PDF (571k) Terresterial Ecosystems and Biodiversity Greenhouse Gas Emissions Downstream Aquatic Ecosystems and Biodiversity Floodplain Ecosystems Fisheries Ecosystem Enhancement Cumulative Impacts Anticipating and Responding to Ecosystem Impacts Findings and Lessons Chapter 4: People and Large Dams: Social Performance - PDF (914k) Socio-Economic Impacts through the Project and Planning Cycle Displacement of People and Livelihoods Indigenous Peoples Downstream Livelihoods Gender Cultural Heritage Human Health Equity and the Distribution of Costs and Benefits Findings and Lessons Chapter 5: Options for Water and Energy Resources - PDF (621k) Development Agriculture and Irrigation Energy and Electricity Water Supply Integrated Flood Management Findings and Lessons Chapter 6: Decision-Making, Planning and Institutions - PDF (419k) Decision-Making and the Political Economy of Large Dams Role of Foreign Assistance Planning and Evaluation Compliance Findings and Lessons PART II: THE WAY FORWARD Chapter 7: Enhancing Human Development: Rights, Risks and Negotiated Outcomes - PDF (417k) From Global Review to Future Practise Sustainable Human Development ? A Global Framework Trends and Challenges in Applying the New Development Framework Rights and Risks ? an Improved Tool for Decision-Making Negotiated Agreements on the Basis of Rights and Risks Conclusion Chapter 8: Strategic Priorities ? A New Policy Framework for the Development of Water and Energy Resources - PDF (687k) Gaining Public Acceptance Comprehensive Options Assessment Addressing Existing Dams Sustaining Rivers and Livelihoods Recognising Entitlements and Sharing Benefits Ensuring Compliance Sharing Rivers for Peace, Development and Security Chapter 9: Criteria and Guidelines ? Applying the Strategic Priorities - PDF (507k) Five Key Decision Points: The WCD Criteria A Special Case: Dams in the Pipeline A Set of Guidelines for Good Practice Chapter 10: Beyond the Commission- An Agenda for Change - PDF (150k) Strategic Entry Points for Follow-up Taking the Initiative ? Institutional Responses Continuing the Dialogue A Call to Action A Comment - Medha Patkar - PDF (86k) ANNEXES I Bibliography PDF (124k) II Glossary PDF (125k) III WCD Work Programme ? Approach and Methodology PDF (128k) IV Reports in the WCD Knowledge Base PDF (131k) V Dams, Water and Energy ? A Statistical Profile PDF (196k) VI United Nations Declarations PDF (153k) VII Members of the World Commission on Dams PDF (118k) VIII A Profile of the WCD Secretariat PDF (60k) INDEX - PDF (80k) Inter-chapter photocollages from the book - PDF (3,507k)
Source/publisher: World Commission on Dams
2000-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2004-07-21
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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