Description:
"The Karenni, one of Burma?s main ethnic
groups, have been suffering for over half a
century from military aggression and abuses by
successive ruling juntas. Now they are facing a
new threat: the damming of rivers across their
state by Chinese investors.
In January 2010, the state-owned Datang Corporation of China
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Burma?s regime to
build three dams in Karenni State, including a 600 Megawatt dam
on the mainstream Salween, and two others on its tributaries, the
Pawn and Thabet rivers.
Plans by Chinese and Thai companies to build dams on the
Salween in Burma have been highly controversial for years for
their human costs and potential environmental impact. The seven
planned dams are all sited in confl ict zones; dam workers have
been killed by land mines and artillery. Military offensives in the
area of the southernmost planned dam have recently caused
thousands of refugees to fl ee to Thailand.
In Karenni State, engineers guarded by armed soldiers are
currently surveying for both the Ywathit Dam on the Salween
and the Pawn River Dam. The Pawn Dam is likely to be built fi rst
to power construction at Ywathit and will be devastating for the
Yintale people who live along the Pawn River and now number
just 1,000..."
Source/publisher:
Karenni Development Research Group (KDRG)
Date of Publication:
2010-00-00
Date of entry:
2016-02-29
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf pdf
Size:
1.45 MB 2 MB