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Thai, Myanmar Govts Criticized For Two Dam Projects

Yahoo News, June 2, 2003

DJ Thai, Myanmar Govts Criticized For Two Dam Projects

BANGKOK (AP)--Thai lawmakers and social critics on Monday urged the Thai and Myanmar governments to canvass public opinion before building two dam projects they fear could cause irreversible damage to local communities and the environment.

The scheme, collectively called the Thai-Myanmar Salween Hydro-Electric Power Dam Project, will displace hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority people living along the Thai-Myanmar border and destroy the world's richest source of teakwood, they said at a seminar.

"Both Thailand and Myanmar should really think hard about the livelihood of their citizens. More study is needed because no report could answer any questions concerning its impacts clearly," said Kraisak Chunhawan, chairman of the Thai Senate's Committee on International Relations.

The 400-billion-baht ($1=THB42.0180) project was proposed several years ago. One dam would be built at Tasang in Myanmar's southern Shan State, and the other in Karen, or Kayah, State, where the river marks the border with Thailand's northern province of Mae Hong Son.

The 2,400 kilometer-long Salween river flows from China through Myanmar and into the Gulf of Martaban.

A memorandum of understanding has already been signed for construction of the Tasang Dam, and feasibility studies are still being done on the other. The two dams would have a combined generating capacity of over 5,000 megawatts.

Electricity from the plant will be used domestically in Myanmar and sold to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries.

Seminar participants expressed concern that Myanmar's military government, already widely criticized for human rights violations, would fail to puts its people's interests before the revenue it would receive from electricity sales.

They feared that flooding would displace people on both sides of the border, as well as disturb established tourist spots on the Thai side.

Kraisak said he had made several inspection trips which led him to believe that the potential damage was greatly underestimated in official projections.

At least 28 villages in three Thai districts will disappear as soon as the construction begins, including much farmland and part of a wildlife sanctuary, he said.

"At least three villages which have been there for a hundred years will go, and so will the communities and culture of the minority groups there," Kraisak said.

Sen. Nirand Pitakwatchara, a member of the Senate's Committee on People's Participation, said the governments should focus on ecological costs, which he said were virtually overlooked.

 
 

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