Work on Myanmar dam goes on under heavy guard

TAUNGGYI (Shan state): Work on a massive hydropower dam appears to be picking up in eastern Myanmar as the electricity-starved nation seeks ways to light more homes amid protests from locals and environmentalists.

Locals say employees of a Chinese state-owned power firm in Shan state have been working under heavy guard at the Mong Ton Hydropower project along the Salween river.

The Mong Ton dam is backed by a consortium, including the China Three Gorges Corporation and a subsidiary of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.

In its original form, the dam would have been the tallest in the country and created a reservoir larger than Singapore. But its design was reportedly modified to reduce local impact.

Typically, large dams displace thousands of villagers, still rivers and block the flow of nutrient-rich silt downstream.

Over the past decade since its inception, the project has run up against intense local and international opposition, not least because it threatens to inundate pristine wetlands featuring hundreds of islets, and escalate the conflict between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups active in that area.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy did not respond to queries.

But the Mong Pan Youth Association, which recently conducted interviews with villagers near the Mong Ton project, told The Straits Times that movement in the vicinity is now heavily restricted by security forces.

Its director Nang Shining said: “One way or other, people will be impacted by the dam, whether it’s through increased security measures or environmental impact.”

A Burmese-language BBC report early last month quoted a resident as saying that a militia member was shot dead while on a boat on the Salween.

The river, called the Thanlwin in Myanmar and the Nu river in China, originates in the Tibetan plateau and then drains into the Andaman Sea via Myanmar and Thailand.

Several sites along the major waterway have been earmarked for hydropower dams.

Besides southern Shan state, where the Mong Ton project is located, other sites include Kunlong, Manntaung and Nong Pha in Shan state, Ywathit in Kayah state and Hat Gyi in Kayin state.

Off the Salween, but also in Shan state, dams in the area of the Myitnge and Shweli rivers are already under construction to meet the country’s increasing demand for electricity.

Appliance-sapping brownouts are common in Myanmar, where some two-thirds of the population are not connected to the power grid.

With electricity consumption growing at 15% every year, the government in January gave the green light for private investment in four gas-fired plants, which will double the country’s power production of some 3,000MW. Solar powered mini-grids are also in the works.

Most of Myanmar’s electricity is currently drawn from 27 hydropower stations. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network