Floods from dam near Thai–Burmese border cause concern

by Usa Pichai

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) –The incident of flash floods near the Thai-Burmese border last week points to the ineffectiveness of the authorities in addition to its blatant blacking out of information, environmentalists have pointed out.

Witoon Permpongsacharoen, an environmentalist attached to the ‘Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance’, a Bangkok based organization working closely with environmental issues in the region told Mizzima that the recent flooding from the Srikakarin Dam in the Kanchanaburi Province bordering Burma, affected several villages in the area.

But information on this was not available from the authorities.

“While compensation is necessary it is important that the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (currently the PTT Public Co. Ltd.) should clarify the facts. Earlier there had been warnings that the dam was vulnerable to earthquakes. Besides there was lack of study on the environmental effect in the area from the construction of the dam,” he said.

“The media seems to have no interest in following up the issue though it affects so many villagers,” he said.

Witoon pointed out that the planned series of dams to be built on the Salween River in Burma will also be at risk from earthquakes “even though the authorities claim that engineering technology could solve this problem and resist damage from earthquakes, measuring up to seven on the Richter scale. But who can guarantee whether earthquakes will not be stronger?” he asked.

The dams has been built on the Srisawat active fault near the Three Pagoda Pass, both on the Thai– Burma border and is at risk from earthquakes.

The incident follows an accident during gas transmission from the Bongkot in the Thai Gulf and Yadana fields in Burma last week. To avoid a power blackout in western Thailand due to the stoppage, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) decided to release water from the Srinakarin Dam in Kanchanaburi province close to the Burmese border to generate power, which resulted in flooding large areas and affecting hundreds of local villagers. There are rumours that the dam has been damaged by an earthquake.

The cabinet was given the report and has acknowledged the technical problems. It was informed that eight villages in Muang district had been affected by floods, along with three resorts, some raft operations and farmlands. A committee has been set up to investigate the sudden release of water from the Srinakarin Dam.

Deputy permanent secretary Norkun Sitthiphong will chair the committee, which has been given seven days to investigate and submit a report.

"The committee will find out why the water had to be released and whether the decision was appropriate. It must also come up with preventive measures," he said, denying reports that the floods were caused by an earthquake.

However, in 2007 the fault line in Burma caused small earthquakes in the Golden Triangle areas, connecting Laos, Burma and Thailand, when a 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred about 700 kilometres from Bangkok.

Such tremors were however not dangerous, but has been causing worry about fault lines near the capital such as the Sakaing fault in the Andaman Sea, 400 kilometres from Bangkok or the Three Pagoda fault zone and the Srisawat fault in Kanchanaburi, 200 kilometres from Bangkok.

READ MORE---> Floods from dam near Thai–Burmese border cause concern...

Dam forcibly displaces 15,000 Burmese

(DVB)–The construction of the unfinished Tasang dam in eastern Burma has already forced around 15,000 people into refugee camps in neighbouring Thailand, according to a report released yesterday.

Upon completion, the Tasang dam on the Salween river in Shan state will be the largest in Southeast Asia, bigger than China’s Three Gorges dam.

But ‘Roots and Resilience’, a report released by the Shan Sapawa Environment Organisation which focuses on the Kheng Kham community, documents the forced relocation of 15,000 civilians living near to the dam site.

Shan state is Burma’s prime opium growing region and the site of often intense conflict, with factions of the ethnic Shan State Army fighting against the Burmese government.

“The dam is in a war zone and the Burmese military always suspect the villagers are part of an armed group,” said Sai Sai, a spokesperson from Shan Sapawa Environment Organization. “So they are arrested, tortured, and many rape cases have been reported in the area.”

The 7,110 megawatt Tasang dam is the biggest of five dams planned on the Salween river.

Last year the government announced that 28 dams were under construction, adding to the 12 that already exist. There are plans to build another 10.

Investors in the project include Thailand’s MDX Company and China’s Gezhouba Group Company.

The majority of the energy generated by the dam will be sold to Thailand, who recently reiterated its support for the project when it included it in its national Power Development Plan against the wish of human rights groups.

“We want to pressure the Thai government not to put the Taseng dam into Power development plan” said Sai Sai.

“If they are doing so then they are showing their support for the dam and for the human rights violations that are occurring as a result of the dam”.

“If they go ahead with the dam 15,000 people will lose everything because their homes will be under the water.”

According to environmental group International Rivers, between 40 and 60 million people worldwide have been displaced by hydropower projects.

Reporting by Alex Ellgee

READ MORE---> Dam forcibly displaces 15,000 Burmese...

KNU Asks Thai Government to Pull out of Salween Dam Project

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News

Burma’s Karen National Union (KNU) appealed on Tuesday to the Thai government to halt its involvement in the construction of the Hat Gyi Dam on the Salween River, warning that the project would cause “huge” environmental damage and human rights abuses.

The KNU made the appeal in a letter to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

David Takapaw, KNU vice chairman, said: “The dam will result in huge environmental impacts and human rights abuses. It will force local villagers to flee to Thailand and become refugees. So we asked him: please, don’t continue the dam construction.”

In recent months, Thai engineers have conducted a field survey at the construction site on Salween River. Many villagers in the area are reportedly opposed to the dam project.

According to the Karen River Watch, a memorandum of understanding was signed in June 2006 between Burma’s Department of Electric Power, the Thai energy authority EGAT and China’s Sinohydro Corporation to build the Hat Gyi dam.

The dam is one of a series scheduled to be built on the Salween River in a joint Thai-Burmese government program. They are expected to generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity, much of which would be delivered to Thailand.

Some reports have claimed that theen

Copies of the KNU’s letter to Abhisit were also to be presented by Karen environmental advocates at a meeting in Bangkok on Tuesday attended by Thai environmental rights groups and Burmese environmental advocates.

The meeting was to focus on human rights abuses and environment issue related to the project, according to an ethnic Shan environmental advocate, Sai Sai, who attended the meeting.

Thailand plans an energy program known as the National Power Development Plan which includes the dams on the Salween River. The plan is expected to be completed by the year 2014, according to Sai Sai.

Meanwhile, his environmental group, the Shan Sapawa Environment Organization (SSEO), released on Tuesday a new report titled “Roots and Resilience” and charging that the construction of dams on the Salween River will result in human rights abuses and environmental damage and will benefit only the Burmese regime and Thai authorities.

SSEO Spokesman Sai Sai said: “Human rights abuses will widely happen if the dam is constructed. Villagers will come to Thailand en masse as refugees.”

Local villagers would receive no benefit from the dams, which would serve only the interests of the Burmese regime and neighboring Thailand, he said.

The environmental damage would include flooding, deforestation and the disappearance of traditional and cultural heritages, Sai Sai maintained.

The SSEO report said the biggest Salween River dam, the Tasang dam, would flood more than 100 villages, forcing thousands of villagers to relocate. One community of 15,000 in Keng Kham, Shan State, had been forced to move 10 years ago because of work on the dam, and most had fled to Thailand, the report said.

Most of the electricity generated by the 7,110 MW Tasang dam will be sold to Thailand. Project investors include the Thai MDX Company and China’s Gezhouba Group Company.

READ MORE---> KNU Asks Thai Government to Pull out of Salween Dam Project...

Tenasserim hydropower project under survey

by Ko Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Thai surveyors and Burmese authorities are surveying the Tenasserim River, in Burma’s southernmost Tenasserim Division, for a potential dam site to generate electricity for export to Thailand and Singapore.

Sources in the area said Thai authorities have placed a representative in Tenasserim Division to observe river levels and to record water levels both during the rainy and summer seasons.

A source, recently arrived on the Thai-Burmese border from the area, said, "They [Thai authorities] have hired a person to monitor the water level of the river in different seasons and pay him about 50,000 baht per month.

“They also leave water-measuring equipment to keep a record of the water level. In the hot season it is measured once a day and in the rainy season it is measured every hour,” he added.

Sources said Thai surveyors and Burmese soldiers on December 25 and 26, 2008, visited the proposed dam sites and collected sample stones and sand from the areas for examination.

According to an official with the Karen National Union (KNU), based in the area, it is the second time that Thai and Burmese authorities are conducting such a survey with the aim of implementing a Tenasserim hydropower project.

The first survey, conducted in 2007, saw KNU officials confiscate the survey equipment, including a Global Positioning System (GPS), cameras and other materials.

Villagers in the area said the survey group has marked two potential dam sites on the river. One in Ler Pa Doh village, called the upper potential dam site, and another near Muro village, called the lower potential dam site. The upper and lower potential dam sites are about three hours distance apart by boat.

Burma has already signed an agreement with Thai and Singaporean companies to provide the two energy hungry nations with electricity from the hydropower project.

According to the New Light of Myanmar, a state-run daily newspaper, a signing ceremony for the Tenasserim hydropower project was held on October 9, 2008, between the Burmese Ministry of Electric Power No. 1, the Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand and Singapore's Wind Fall Energy Services Ltd.

The paper said, the propose hydroproject will produce an estimate of 600 Mega Watt.

Sources said following the agreement two Burmese Army battalions have been stationed in the vicinity of the potential dam sites – in the villages of Ler Pah Doh and Thay Baw Nah, respectively.

Locals said there has never been any consultation on the proposed dam with residents from the more than 11 villages likely to be affected by any construction.

A KNU official, who requested not to be named, added, “We will keep an eye on the development of the dam project and related surveying in this area.”

READ MORE---> Tenasserim hydropower project under survey...

Chinese firms to have stakes in two mega dams

By Moe Thu

Rangoon (Mizzima News) - Business stakeholders from Burma, China and Thailand are into discussions for Chinese investors to involve themselves in two huge hydro power dams in Burma, said a Rangoon-based energy expert.

The two multi-billion-dollar projects on the Salween River are being developed by Thailand's MDX Group and Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, both of which have joint ventures with Burma's Ministry of Electric Power (1).

“A few Chinese firms are holding discussions with officials concerned to participate in the two projects -- Tasang and Hatgyi,” said the expert.

The Tasang hydropower project, worth US$ 7 billion, is the largest Thai investment in Burma. It will generate an estimated 7,100 megawatts (MW) and is being operated by Thailand’s MDX Group, while the US$1 billion Hatgyi project is being developed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).

However, the expert, who wished not to be named for fear of reprisal, refused to comment on how many shares the Chinese side will take.

The Tasang project, located about 75 kilometres from the Thai border, will be 868 metres long and 227 metres high and will be the biggest dam ever and is scheduled to become functional in 2022.

A joint venture agreement to build the dam was signed in Rangoon in April 2006 between Burma and MDX Group. The pre-feasibility study started in 1997.

The expert said the Burmese side was delaying building the Tasang project and that the actual construction only started in early 2007 but was suspended shortly thereafter.

The Tasang project, one of the five mega hydropower projects on the Salween River, is being jointly developed by Burma and Thailand.

Meanwhile, the expert said China is negotiating to participate in the $1 billion Hatgyi project on Salween River in Karen State. China’s Sinohydro Corp will be the investor in the Hatgyi project that is located in the conflict zone between the Karen rebels and the Burmese Army.

Two EGAT technicians were killed while on a survey at the dam site in 2007, forcing the EGAT to halt the survey work.

READ MORE---> Chinese firms to have stakes in two mega dams...

Mekong citizens appeal to Thai PM against construction of dams

by Usa Picha

Chiang Mai (Mizzima news) - Citizens of six countries which share the Mekong River on Thursday submitted a petition with 16,000 signatures to Thailand’s Prime Minister to save the Mekong River.

‘The Save the Mekong coalition’, a civil environmental society concerned about the Mekong River released a press statement on Thursday saying that the group is to hand in a petition, endorsed by more than 16,000 people from the six-countries of the Mekong region and around the world, who have signed a “Save Mekong” petition urging governments to abandon plans for hydropower development along the river’s mainstream.

The six countries that share the Mekong River are China, Lao, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia.

The statement noted that most postcard signatories wrote personal messages to the region’s leaders such as “Don’t let hydropower dams block our children's future!” said Wang Dezhi from Yunnan, China.

“Don’t build the Mekong dams. The existing dams in Thailand already make brothers and sisters fight against each other!” Mak Vangdokmai, Roi et, from Thailand wrote. “Saving us, saving our resources! Electricity is not everything!” Nguyen Thanh Hang, Hanoi, from Vietnam wrote in the petition.

Over the past few months, citizen groups have organized a number of events to the run-up to this week’s Save the Mekong launch, to rally public support for the river including a photo exhibition, environment workshops and events.

Mekong fisheries provide a critical source of food and income for millions of people along the river. Recent official estimates place the annual value of the river’s wild capture fisheries to be worth up to US$3 billion, the statement said.

It further added that mainstream dams will block the massive fish migration that account for up to 70 per cent of the river’s commercial fish catch which ensure regional food security. Experience around the world demonstrates that there is no way to mitigate the fisheries impact of such large dams.

“China’s dam construction on the Upper Mekong mainstream (Lancang) has already caused serious environmental problems, in the form of declining fish stocks, riverbank erosion, and hazardous water level fluctuations in downstream Burma, northern Thailand and northern Lao PDR,” the group said in the statement.

“The Save the Mekong coalition and those that signed the petition are very concerned that similarly severe cross-border impacts could create cross-border disputes,” the group added.

The petition has been written in seven languages by fishermen and farmers living along the river’s mainstream and tributaries, as well as by monks, students, city-folk and even some of the region’s well-known celebrities, and will be submitted to Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in Bangkok, and sent to other government leaders in the region.

Civil society groups in the Mekong region and internationally have been sounding the alarm about plans to build 11 hydro dams on the Lower Mekong mainstream for many years, in what is often described as an uphill battle.

The group concluded that the largely donor-backed inter-governmental Mekong River Commission, meanwhile, has failed to disclose its assessment of the Don Sahong dam, prepared in 2007, despite repeated requests from civil society groups, and is now positioning itself as a “facilitator” among the region’s hydro developers. The MRC has skirted some of the most critical issues, including ensuring transparency and public participation, and protecting regional food security.

READ MORE---> Mekong citizens appeal to Thai PM against construction of dams...

Irrawaddy News Weekly Business Roundup - May 29, 2009

By WILLIAM BOOT
The Irrawaddy News

Trade Unions Pressure Chevron on Burma

Two American trade unions backed by a several human rights groups have attempted to force US oil giant Chevron to justify its continued involvement with the “pariah military regime” of Burma.

The teamsters’ and AFL-CIO unions sought to press a vote at Chevron’s annual shareholders’ meeting in California on Wednesday to disclose business dealings in Burma, where it has a stake in the Yadana gas field.

The disclosure bid, which garnered 25 percent of the vote but failed to pass, questioned the Chevron management’s political risk assessment criteria.

“We’re pleased that other Chevron shareholders recognize the enormous legal, financial, political and reputational risks associated with operating in Burma,” said teamsters’ general-secretary Thomas Keegel after the vote.

“The Burmese military junta is one of Chevron's partners in Yadana through its military-run oil company, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise.

That makes Chevron business partners with a pariah military regime that has brutally dominated the people of Burma and that has put a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest.”

Chevron, which has a 28 percent share in the Yadana field, managed by France’s Total, says it will not quit Burma, despite pressure also from the US Congress.

The Californian company insists that its business presence in Burma benefits ordinary people.


China’s Green Policy Stops at Border where River Changes Name

A Chinese state-owned company is pressing ahead with a project to build a large dam on the Salween River in Burma—after the Beijing government ordered a halt to similar projects along the same river in China.

Praise has been lavished on China’s Pemier Wen Jiabao for suspending dam work on the upper reaches of the Nujiang River, reportedly over environmental concerns.

But those concerns appear to evaporate after the 3,240-kilometer river from the foothills of the Himalayas crosses into Burma.

The Chinese Sinohydro Corporation construction company is still moving ahead with a 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric dam scheme on the same river at Hatgyi in Karen State.

In Burma, the river is called the Salween and the military regime is unconcerned about the environment. Chinese and Thai government state agencies are involved in the Hatgyi project.

Environmentalists say the concerns now apparently preoccupying government officials across the border in China do not apply in Burma, where a number of controversial dams are proposed.

“All of the dams planned on the Salween River will greatly disrupt the riverine ecosystem and destroy the livelihoods of those peoples living along the river,” says the NGO Burma Rivers Network. “Large areas of land…will be flooded. Those living along the river will be forcibly relocated, likely without compensation.”

Most of the electricity from the Hatgyi project is earmarked for Thailand.


Burma, Bangladesh Discuss Improved Sea Links to Boost Trade

Burma and Bangladesh are attempting to improve trade and cooperation in the Arakan coastal region border area between the two countries.

Proposals for agricultural fertilizer factories, hydroelectric schemes and commercial coastal traffic between Chittagong and Sittwe were discussed at a ministerial level meeting, according to Bangladeshi media reports.

The two sides talked about ways of boosting the value of bilateral trade more than 300 percent—from US $140 million a year in 2008 to US $500 million in 2010.

The proposals, between a Bangladeshi delegation led by Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and several of Burma’s military leaders, including energy minister Gen Lun Thi, came despite friction in other relations between the two countries.

The issue of sea territory boundaries between the two countries in the Bay of Bengal remains unresolved, and Dhaka is expected to refer that issue to the United Nations for arbitration.

Both sides claim areas believed to harbor lucrative undersea natural gas deposits.


New Cyclone Hits Fishing, Rice Industries

Cyclone damage in Burma’s Arakan State has damaged coastal shrimp farms and agricultural crops while other farming communities are still trying to recover from last year’s Cyclone Nargis.

Cyclone Aila earlier this week ripped through coastal areas on both sides of the border between Burma and Bangladesh.

Hundreds of flimsy built houses have been destroyed and fishing and shrimp farming businesses badly dislocated, according to the Kaladan news agency.

The cost of damage has not yet been assessed. Reports from Arakan say the authorities had made little or no preparation for this year’s cyclone season.

Burma’s fishing and rice industries are still struggling to recover from the devastation wreaked by Nargis one year ago.

READ MORE---> Irrawaddy News Weekly Business Roundup - May 29, 2009...

UN Study Advises Caution over Dams

By MICHAEL CASEY / AP WRITER
The Irrawaddy News

BANGKOK — A dam-building spree in China poses the greatest threat to the future of the already beleaguered Mekong, one of the world's major rivers and a key source of water for the region, a UN report said Thursday.

China is constructing a series of eight dams on the upper half of the Mekong as it passes through high gorges of Yunnan Province, including the recently completed Xiowan Dam, which—at 958 feet (292 meters) high—is the world's tallest. Its storage capacity is equal to all the Southeast Asia reservoirs combined, the UN report said.

Laos, meanwhile, has started construction on 23 dams expected to be finished by 2010 on the Mekong and its tributaries, the UN said, as a means to spur development and lift the country from poverty. Cambodia and Vietnam also have ambitious dam-building plans.

"China's extremely ambitious plan to build a massive cascade of eight dams on the upper half of the Mekong River, as it tumbles through the high gorges of Yunnan Province, may pose the single greatest threat to the river," the report said.

The report went onto to say that the impacts of the proposed dam development include "changes in river flow volume and timing, water quality deterioration and loss of biodiversity."

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a regular briefing the government pays equal attention to the development of the Mekong and its protection. The Mekong is known as the Lancang river in China.

"I would like to point out that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the exploration and the protection of cross-border rivers and conducts the policy of equal attention to development and protection," Ma said.

The proposed dams would add further pressure to the Mekong, which runs through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The 307,000-square-mile (795,000-square-kilometer) river network is home to dozens of rare bird and marine species, including the Mekong giant catfish, and is a source of food and jobs for the 65 million people who live in the river basin.

The river and its vast tributary network already face threats from pollution, climate change and the effects of earlier dams that were built in China and have caused water levels to drop sharply on the upper Mekong.

Still, the UN report said for the time being, the Mekong's pollution levels were not at "alarming levels" while water shortages and conflicts over water on the Mekong have so far not emerged.

"The Mekong is in good condition at this time and can take more pressure such as irrigation development or industrial development," said Mukand S. Babel, one of the reports' authors.

The report, however, found several river basins in the Mekong that are under threat, including the Tonle Sap in Cambodia, Nam Khan in Laos and Sekong-Sesan Srepok in Vietnam and Cambodia due to increasing development and demand for water.

It called for countries bordering the Mekong to work more closely together to ensure that the region's growing population and expected economic development doesn't further strain the capacity of the delta.

"The time to tackle these challenges is now, otherwise the projected growth and development may impact on the basin's ability to meet future water needs," said Young-Woo Park, a UN regional director.

READ MORE---> UN Study Advises Caution over Dams...

Canal dam breaks, flooding villages

by May Kyaw

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The left canal of Kinda dam in Myitha Township, Mandalay Division, cracked on the 16th of May, inundating 12 villages.

Incessant heavy rainfall is thought responsible for the collapse.

Following the break, four-foot high water cut off communication to the villages and damaged roads. Only after three days of the incident, was relief work able to commence.

People in Myitha have started providing relief materials such as food parcels and rice, but the exact amount of damage caused by the dam breaking has not been ascertained.

"We have started sending rice bags today but they have not yet reached the flooded villages. We are sending these rice bags via three-hand tractor trailers. Some villages are accessible but some as yet are not," a local resident told Mizzima.

On the same day a pond used by villagers from Nyaungbin village, in Nahtogyi Township near Myitha, overflowed its banks.

The overflowing of the pond flooded some villages in Nahtogyi Township and damaged roads in the area, preventing any relief efforts to date.

The left Kinda dam canal, which became operational in 1985, is a major hydroelectric, multi-purpose canal.

READ MORE---> Canal dam breaks, flooding villages...

Environmentalists worried over impact of Mekong damning

by Usa Pichai

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Environmentalists have warned that the damning of Mekong Rivers will have a significant trans boundary impact on countries which share this river, including Burma but accessing information on the issue in Burma is limited.

Montree Chantawong, a Thai environmentalist from the Bangkok-based environment organization, Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (Terra) said in a conference on Friday that the damning of projects on the Mekong River in China has destroyed the natural resources of the river and caused decrease in fish and water plant that affect local livelihood, fluctuating water current and would also create conflicts between states and people along the river bank in six countries, according to a case study of Ban Koum Hydropower dam on Mekong mainstream, Lao and Thailand border.

Chantawong also said that the impact of the upstream in China and Burma might have similar impacts but the accessing information is more difficult.

“The damning will only benefit politicians, investors and financial institutions. The claims about electricity generation are fake,” he said.

The six countries that share Mekong River are China, Burma, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam.

However, early this month the Lahu National Development Organization (LNDO) released a report “Undercurrents – Monitoring Development Along Burma’s Mekong”, which confirmed that the impact of the Chinese damning project has not been documented clearly. “China continues to construct a series of giant dams on the mainstream Mekong while downstream communities anxiously question what will befall them. Unprecedented floods in August 2008 damaged thousands of acres of paddy farms.”

The Mekong river bank in Burmese territory is habitat to over 22,000 primarily indigenous people living in the mountainous region of this isolated stretch of the river. The main ethnic groups are Akha, Shan, Lahu, Sam Tao (Loi La), Chinese, and En. The Mekong River has a special significance for the Lahu people, who, like the Chinese, call it the Lancang.

Chantawong’s presentation is a part of Asia and Pacific Regional Health Impact Assessment Conference in Chiang Mai held from 22 – 24 April, 2009 which aimed at promoting Health Impact Assessment (HIA) mechanism as a core part of public development projects of all governments’ agencies.

The representatives from Asia Pacific regions have presented case studies from their countries about the impact on people’s health and livelihood from development projects, particularly the government’s mega projects or policies.

“All policies should take the health of people into consideration and be accountable to impacts that might occur on people’s health. Any policy and programme formulated must take health issues into account by conducting HIA,” according to a press statement from the conference where representatives from 20 countries attended.

The participant also announced the “Chiang Mai Declaration” which focus that every stakeholder of development projects need to realize the importance of people’s health. In addition, they urged ASEAN to treat the issue of HIA as regional mechanism. Given its function as an official coordinating body in an international community, “ASEAN is the appropriate forum to take the lead because the organizational structure of ASEAN has already set up the Secretariat body and the National Secretariat bodies,” the group noted.

In addition the statement also calls on international financial institutions, i.e., the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank to agree to have HIA as criteria for financing projects. Therefore projects financed by Equator Principles adopted international financial institutions are ensured to carry out their implementation pro

Publish Post

perly. It promises to promote the efficient HIA with principles of public participation and people’s empowerment.

READ MORE---> Environmentalists worried over impact of Mekong damning...

Kachin state, waiting for an ecological disaster

By Shyamal Sarkar

Kachin State in northern Burma is sitting on a powder keg of an ecological disaster. From impending dam related devastation to the rape of the environment in terms of incalculable damage to the flora and fauna has rendered the state extremely vulnerable. Rampant felling of trees and the wanton killing of myriad wildlife for filthy lucre for export to China has led to a serious situation which is far from being addressed.

Anti-Myitsone, Irrawaddy River dam poster was pasted in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state in northern Burma in November, 2007.

For instance a series of earth quakes in China's southwest Yunnan province, bordering Burma has thrown up the spectre of future Chinese-made dam disasters in northern Burma. There was an earthquake of 4.9 magnitude on the Richter scale in Ruili (Shweli) on the China-Burma border last week. China's Yunnan province and Kachin state in northern Burma sit on the same earth quake fault line.

China and Burma are into construction of three dams for hydropower projects in Taping River (also called Dapain River in China) in Kachin state. The Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) based on the Sino-Burma border nurses fears that if the three dams on Taping River should burst due to earth quakes originating from Yunnan province, the floods will threaten the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in Myothit, Momauk (N'Mawk) and Bhamo (Manmaw).

The Burma-Asia World Company and China's China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) are jointly gearing up to construct dams in Myitsone, the Mali-N'Mai River confluence, 10 miles north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state and Chibwe in N'Mai River. There will be a total of seven dam projects in Mali and N'Mai Rivers in Kachin state leading to not only displacement of people but raising the chances of disasters and severe damage to the environment.

Natural disasters man made or otherwise apart, the ecology of Kachin state is being systematically destroyed due to rampant logging where trees by the thousands are being felled.

Rampant logging is one of biggest enemies of Kachin state and big money comes into play in the timber business which is denuding the forest cover of the state and ruining the ecology. In order to allow felling of trees bribes are paid on a monthly basis. Everyone from the Burmese Army to the police and government officials have their palms greased by Chinese timber businessmen in Kachin state.

Body parts of different wild animals in Kachin state are mainly sold in the markets on China-Burma border.

Chinese loggers and log trucks in hordes from China's northwest Yunnan province arrived in the forests in Bhamo District in Kachin state in early November. At the last count there were 300 Chinese trucks and about 1,000 Chinese loggers. Hardwood and softwood is being felled non-stop and transported to the Sino-Burma border day and night. The lucrative trade that the Chinese are into is spelling the death knell of Kachin state's forest cover.

The heavy logging underway is a direct fall out of a deal struck between the Northern Command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win and local Chinese-Burmese timber businessman Lee Maw Yung. Bhamo District Military Strategic Command commander Lt-Col. Khin Maung Maung and Northern Command commander Maj-Gen Soe Win are said to receive the largest slice of bribes from Chinese timber businessmen. Even loss of life means nothing when it comes to timber trade for on December 15, a villager of Kone Ting in Mansi Township also called Manje in Kachin was shot dead in a dispute over logging between the Kone Ting villagers and timber-logger-thieves close to Chinese loggers.

Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win granted permission to export timber to China through the border checkpoints controlled by the two Kachin ceasefire groups--- Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), New Democratic Army-Kachin (NDA-K) and Lasang Awng Wa Ceasefire Group (LAWCG) in September after he was appointed as the new commander of Northern Command in June.

While China officially stopped importing timber from northern Burma in late 2005 Chinese timber businessmen had never really stopped timber felling. Now China has resumed importing timber from Kachin state as of early December 2008.

As if denudation of forest cover was not enough, in northern Burma there is a raging trade in elephant body parts. The pachyderms are being killed for its ivory and skin for over a decade by local people. The shocking trade continues unhindered with prices in Kachin state for a set of tusks weighing between one to two Viss at 500,000 Kyat (US $ 397) to 600,000 Kyat (US $ 476). It is over 1.5 million Kyat for a set of tusks weighing over 10 Viss (1Viss = 1.6 Kilograms in Burmese measurement in terms of weight). Again one Viss of dry elephant skin is valued at over 40,000 Kyat (US $32). An elephant has at least over 100 Viss of skin so hunters earn over 4 million Kyat just from the skin. Ivory is mainly exported to Thailand and some to China but elephant skin mainly goes to China for traditional treatment. Here again bribes are offered in abundance to regime functionaries. There are only about 1,000 wild elephants where as the figure in 1994 was over 3,000 in Kachin state.

Chinese log trucks on the China-Burma border in northern Burma.

It would seem that conservation of wild life is an alien concept in Burma. Less than a month ago 2,000 snakes being transported in a truck were seized by special branch policemen in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state.

The reptiles were being exported to China where demand for all varieties of wild animals as food items is high. The snakes were in hundreds of wooden boxes. While some of the reptiles had died the rest were killed by the police and fire brigade personnel. They beat and set the reptiles, which included vipers, cobras and Boa Constrictors on fire without batting an eyelid.

China imports all kinds of wild animals from Kachin state. Leopards and tigers face the danger of extinction. The Chinese import the animals for its flesh, skin, horns, bones and other body parts.

The damage caused to the ecology and the environment is also immense because of rampant trapping and export of wild animals to China for food. Environmentalists are concerned. But the military junta pays no heed to such wanton destruction for money is to be made from all this.

The one thing that the Burmese generals do not do, is think of future generations, even their own, in terms of environment and ecology.

READ MORE---> Kachin state, waiting for an ecological disaster...