Of the seven hydropower projects on the anvil one will be in Myitsone near Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State and the other is the Chibwe hydropower project which is planned to be built near Chibwe town on N'mai Hka River.
Work has begun at a brisk pace at Chibwe, the second largest hydroelectric power project in Kachin State in Northern Burma and the construction company has issued notices, albeit word of mouth, to the villagers to relocate at their own expense.
The villages in Washapa and upper Nyawngmawpa valley near Chibwe project site in N'mai Hka River also called May Kha River are in the face of pressure to relocate from the project site by the Asia World Company. The pressure has been on for the past two months. Villagers have stubbornly refused to shift but how long they will be able to hold put is anybody's guess.
In what is a joint sector project between Burma and China, main offices have been opened in Mandung, 10 miles north of Chibwe. There is a flurry of activity and Chinese engineers are swarming all over the place inspecting the project site armed with modern equipment. Typical of a project sites, roads are under construction with bulldozers and excavators grunting their way along. Workers have been hired from among the locals each getting Kyat 5,000 equivalent of US $ 4 per day as minimum wage.
The Chibwe hydropower project is estimated to generate a total of 2,000 megawatts of electricity.
Much in the same manner preliminarily inspection of the largest hydroelectric power project is underway in the Myitsone, on the placid confluence of the two rivers Mali Hka and N'mai Hka, 26 miles north of Myitkyina, This project will generate 3,600 megawatt of electricity.
The Myitsone project is a beehive of activity with dynamite being used on the river bed. Work continues day and night and the pace seems to be hurried with over 1,000 construction workers. That the junta is according a lot of importance to the projects is evident from Burma Army troops providing security. The Myitsone project happens to be the biggest of all seven projects.
Despite repeated appeals by environmental and human rights groups to halt the Myitsone project the junta has paid no heed.
Kachins had made an official appeal to Burmese junta supremo Sn-Gen Than Shwe to halt the project. He has turned a deaf ear. Besides the prospect of thousands being displaced and their means of livelihood shattered, the environment and the eco system of Kachin state stands to suffer irrevocable damage. Flora and fauna and the marine life in the dam area will be destroyed. The Chibwe hydropower project will flood the villages in Triangle Areas and thousands of villagers have to be relocated. Reports in the Burmese media in exile suggest that no environmental study was done before the project was planned. The people of Kachin state were kept totally in the dark and the opinion of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) and its armed wing the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) were never sought. The junta has kowtowed to the Chinese over the dam projects.
The fact of the matter is that the KIO has been ambivalent in its stand on the two projects. Known to play second fiddle to the arrogant Burmese military regime after it reached a ceasefire agreement with the regime, the KIO has never in all these 14 years known to take on the junta, showered as it is with favours by the generals.
It is only lately that the KIO and the KIA are toying with the idea of opposing the Chibwe hydroelectric power project. It has said that it may oppose the Chibwe project, if it threatens native Kachins around the project site. The KIO has added a rider saying if the project really benefits people and the junta relocates the locals without force, "we completely support it".
At the official level it had made noises and demanded a stop to the project at Myitsone.
However, they have neither unofficially nor officially issued any statement against the Chibwe project. The project is being constructed in the joint sector by Burma's ruling junta and the Chinese government's China Power Investment Corporation (CPI). The agreement was signed in 2006.
(The author is a veteran journalist from India and has been in major newspapers as a Reporter, Deputy Chief of Bureau, News Coordinator, Op-ed and Edit writer.)
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