TANGHPRE, 6 April 2010 (IRIN): A dam being built in Burmas northern Kachin State will displace more than 15.000 people, activists warn.
According to the Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG), based in Thailand, which has called for a halt to the dam’s construction, over 60 villages are being forced to relocate without proper resettlement plans.
Thousands will lose their livelihoods, including farming, fishing and non-timber forest product collection, the group claims.
– The government is going to drive us out of our village, claimed Ma Jar*, a 40-year-old mother of three in Tanghpre, an agricultural village of just over 1.000.
Until now she has never struggled to support her family, earning about 1.500 US dollar (ca. 8.250 DKR) per year from the djenkol bean trees, a local delicacy in Burma, she grows on her land.
Massive project
A flawed compen-sation process that has no independent oversight or ac-countability mechanisms is being carried out using intimidation by military authorities.
The Myitsone Dam – a joint effort by Burmas military government and the China Power Investment Corporation and the China Southern Power Grid Cooperation – will inundate (oversvømme) approximately 766 sqkm of pristine (urørt) rainforest, creating a reservoir roughly the size of New York City, says International Rivers, an NGO based in the US.
Located 1,6 km below the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers, the source of the Ayeyarwady River – which bisects the country from north to south and empties into the Andaman Sea – the dam will be the largest of seven proposed along the three rivers.
Construction of the Myitsone Dam began at the end of 2009 and is expected to be completed in 2017.
At an expected height of 152 meters, the dam will be the 15th largest hydroelectric power station in the world, producing 3.600 MW of electricity which Burmas military government will sell to China, bringing in over 500 million dollar annually.
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