Publication Date : 27-09-2014
US$6b project with China involvement will be in fragile post-conflict area
A contentious dam is being planned on the Salween river in Myanmar's Shan state, to be built by China's Three Gorges Corp in partnership with Myanmar's IGE Co, which is controlled by the sons of Mr Aung Thaung, a powerful ruling party lawmaker.
State-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) will reportedly buy a huge amount of its energy output.
The planned gigantic dam, which reports say is near Kunhing township on the west bank of the sprawling river, will create a 676 sq km reservoir - slightly smaller than Singapore's land area of 715 sq km. The dam will drown agricultural and forest land.
The dam agreement was made under Myanmar's previous military regime - which rarely revealed information or consulted affected communities over development projects.
Kunhing residents first knew about the dam when representatives of the companies, together with the army area commander, arrived in the town in February and said they were going to build it, says a Member of Parliament from the area, Nang Wah Nu.
Since then, the Myanmar army has tightened security in the area, and work on the 7,000MW project has started, the locals say. The US$6 billion project is one of seven planned along the river's Myanmar course.
All the dams have Chinese involvement, and EGAT plans to buy about 7,000MW of power from them, says Pianporn Deetes, the Bangkok-based Thailand campaign manager of International Rivers, a non-governmental organisation based in the US.
Compounding the worry over the dams in Myanmar are the plans, upstream across the border in China, for 12 dams on what is so far the longest un-dammed river in mainland Southeast Asia.
The Salween originates in the Tibetan plateau and runs through southern China and Myanmar, close to the Thai border, and into the sea at Moulmein in Mon state. The river is called the Thanlwin in Burmese.
The dam at Kunhing will be in a fragile, post-conflict area.
The cascade of dams planned for the Salween will also affect other post-conflict areas in Kayin and Mon states.
Also, going ahead with the massive Kunhing project risks affecting peace negotiations between the government and armed ethnic groups, analysts say.
Armed groups in Shan State have long fought the government for autonomy and control over natural resources. At the moment, there is a tenuous ceasefire.
In the mid-1990s, thousands of ethnic Shan, from the area where the dam is to be built, fled from the Myanmar army.
Many live in northern Thailand and risk being turned into "permanent refugees" if the reservoir floods their original homelands, says Pianporn.
Yangon-based Myo Win Thu, director of Ecodev, one of Myanmar's biggest environment and development NGOs, says in a phone interview: "Of course there will be environmental and social problems, but there is also the political drama."
The Salween dams would raise the stakes for China in Myanmar, and any internal conflict may also affect ongoing peace negotiations with armed ethnic groups, he points out.
Few details are known about the dam near Kunhing. "Information disclosure is very limited," Deetes says. "The level of transparency is almost equal to zero."
The project is thought to be a version of the Tasang dam, first proposed by Thailand more than 10 years ago. But analysts are unsure whether it is a new version of the Tasang project or an entirely separate and possibly competing one. Pianporn calls it the Tasang-Mai Tong dam.
Earlier this month, in response to a question in Parliament from Nang Wah Nu, who was seeking details, Deputy Minister for Electrical Power Maw Thar Htwe said the government was committed to the military regime-era deal apparently made in 2010.
State-run media quoted the minister as saying: "We will present details later about the cost of the project after we have done a study about environmental and social issues."
Australian company Snowy Mountains Engineering Corp had been contracted to carry out a social and environmental impact study, the minister said.
On the issue of the power to be produced - with Myanmar facing a chronic shortage - he said: "The electric hydropower generated will be used in the country and any excess power we will sell to neighbouring countries."
Meanwhile, rumours are swirling in Kunhing township that age-old pagodas and stupas will be destroyed and villages submerged in the building of the dam, activists say.
"This is testing the waters for the current government, on the issue of transparency," says Ecodev's Myo Win Thu.
See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/asia/story/myanmars-contentious-dam-20140927#sthash.F0CjO3XX.dpuf
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/myanmars-contentious-dam/
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