Myanmar: Hydropower commission tipped to advise nixing Myitsone

Myanmar: Hydropower commission tipped to advise nixing Myitsone

Fifteen days until it must submit an initial report on whether several
hydropower dams along the Ayeyarwady River should go forward, the commission
for reviewing and scrutinising those projects is leaning toward recommending
the most controversial of the bunch, the Myitsone mega-dam, be scrapped.

A boat drives past near the Myitsone dam at the Ayeyarwady River's
confluence in Kachin State on February 24, 2012. Photo: EPAA boat drives
past near the Myitsone dam at the Ayeyarwady River's confluence in Kachin
State on February 24, 2012. Photo: EPA

In mid-September, the 20-member commission visited the Myitsone dam site in
Kachin State and met with residents living in the project area, amid growing
local objections to a resumption of construction on the US$3.6 billion
venture.

A commission member who spoke on condition of anonymity said yesterday that
the advisory body has begun compiling statistics for its first report and
would advise the government not to continue the Myitsone project due to the
public's preponderate objections.

"People don't want to continue the project and we note that the Myitsone
project was begun under the dictatorship," said the member.

Another commissioner who also asked for anonymity said the commission had
not yet made a final decision on what recommendation it would deliver to the
government on Myitsone, but that the consensus among its members was against
going forward with the project.

"We have no authorisation to talk to the media about the commission's
decision," said the commissioner.

The commission has been tasked with reviewing hydropower projects slated for
the Ayeyarwady River and recommending whether they should continue, weighing
costs and benefits to citizens along with the potential effects its
recommendations could have on investors.

Formed in August, the commission must submit its initial report to the
president by November 11.

There were conflicting accounts as to whether the report would be made
public, as well as to whom that decision fell.

U Zaw Htay, deputy director general for the President's Office, said it
would be up to the commission.

"It depends only on the commission's decision. It is independent of the
government," he said.

But the commissioners said the commission would not release any information
about its first report without the blessing of the government that formed
it.

Yesterday, residents of Ingyanyan township in Kachin State addressed an open
letter to President U Htin Kyaw, demanding that he cancel seven hydropower
projects slated for the Ayeyarwady River, including Myitsone.

U Brang Shawng, a member of the Mungchying Rawt Jat organisation in Kachin
State and a long-time opponent of the Myitsone project, told The Myanmar
Times yesterday that the government should not continue to implement any
hydropower projects opposed by the people.

"We hope that the president will suspend these projects," said U Brang
Shawng, who is from Kachin State's Chipwe township.

The letter signatories' objection to the hydropower dams stems from the
manner in which the previous military government and investors had handled
the projects - with no consideration for the opinions of the public and
without transparency, the letter says.

The former military government, the Myanmar conglomerate Asia World and
Chinese firm China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) formed a joint venture
- Upstream Ayeyarwady Confluence Basin Hydropower Company - to build the
4600-megawatt Myitsone dam in 2006.

Development at the site was suspended in 2011 by then-president U Thein
Sein, who cited a growing movement against it among the public.

Concerns about the dam's environmental impacts, displacement of local
populations and an original power-transfer agreement that would see about 90
percent of the electricity generated by Myitsone sent to China have all
fuelled persisting resistance to the project.

Attempts by The Myanmar Times to reach CPI for comment yesterday were
unsuccessful.

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Ref:
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/23371-hydropower-commission-t
ipped-to-advise-nixing-myitsone-members.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com