Myanmar: Myitsone Residents Protest World Bank's Hydropower Assessment Workshop

Myanmar: Myitsone Residents Protest World Bank's Hydropower Assessment
Workshop

Myitsone residents demonstrated in Myitkyina, Kachin State on Tuesday
against assessment workshops for future hydropower projects financed by the
World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC).

More than 50 protesters gathered in front of the Palm Spring Resort Hotel,
where representatives from Burma's government, the state-owned China Power
Investment Corporation (CPI) and the IFC were holding the workshop.

They said they feared a resumption of the multi-billion dollar Myitsone
hydropower dam construction on the confluence of Irrawaddy River in Kachin
State, highlighting displacement which could be caused by potential
flooding, and environmental and social consequences for residents along
Burma's major waterway nationwide.

"We do not want those dams, therefore we protested," explained Ja Hkawng,
from the local organization Mungthying Rawng Jat, which translates to the
Grassroots People's Development Group.

Demonstrators urged the civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD)
government to honor locals' desires and called for support from citizens
across the country in objecting to dam construction.

In September 2011, former President U Thein Sein postponed the China-backed
Myitsone dam project following the public's widespread call to halt it.

"We have been protesting against mega hydropower dam projects for a long
time, and we will continue until it stops," Ja Hkawng told The Irrawaddy.
"But the government has not acted decisively on it yet. It seems more like
they are backing the companies."

A bloc of Kachin political parties-the Kachin Political Parties Coordination
Committee (KPCC)-shared their letter with the IFC stating that they want no
dam construction in the Myitsone area, as it is a conflict zone.

"We explained that as there is still fighting in the area [between the Burma
Army and the Kachin Independence Army], as well as the presence of tens of
thousands of internally displaced people, there must be a moratorium on all
such large projects," said Jaw San Naw, the secretary of both the Kachin
Democratic Party and the KPCC.

"Therefore, we call on international banks and companies not to promote such
projects until there is peace in our country," read their statement.

Jaw San Naw added that now it is not the right time for companies to sponsor
large-scale investment projects, particularly while ignoring the Kachin
people's suffering and their "lack of constitutional rights to make
decisions regarding natural resources in their homeland."

Citing CPI's visit to Myitkyina in 2016 to discuss a potential restart of
the Myitsone dam project, locals said they were worried that the World
Bank's IFC-sponsored workshops in the Kachin State capital, and in other
cities, could be pushing for the postponed dam projects to resume.

The NLD government formed the Irrawaddy Myitsone Inquiry Commission last
August, tasked with evaluating the hydropower project on the Irrawaddy
River. The commission submitted its first assessment to President U Htin
Kyaw in November, meeting its projected deadline. Committee members have
said they will come up with a full report at a later date, as field studies
are ongoing, but no update was available at the time of reporting.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myitsone-residents-protest-world-banks-h
ydropower-assessment-workshop.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com