Talong villagers strongly oppose public consultation on Upper Yeywa dam

Talong villagers in Hsipaw township, northern Shan State, are opposing the public consultation by the Myanmar Environment Institute (MEI) for the Upper Yeywa dam on the Namtu or Myitnge river that would flood their entire village.

The public consultation is being organized by MEI at the local General Administration Department office in Hsipaw today. MEI is promoting the Upper Yeywa dam project despite local strong opposition. If completed, the dam will submerge the entire village of Talong, housing 653 people. 637 acres of orchards, 140 acres of rice fields, and countless hill-farms, as well as temples, pagodas, and schools.

“I don’t understand why the civilian government do not pay attention to local people’s voices. We have been calling for this project to be halted many times. Proceeding with the dam project is like pushing us into danger. The government should listen to us and protect our community from being destroyed. We strongly oppose any dam promotion,” said Nang Lao Kham a local Talong villager.

The project has not been transparent since it started in 2008. There was no consultation with local villagers beforehand, and there is fear of dam breakage due to poor construction standards. In recent months, there have been landslides at the construction site.

Upper Yeywa dam project is one of four controversial dams planned on the Namtu river, northern Shan State, which is an active conflict zone. Companies from China, Japan, Switzerland and Germany are involved in the project.

Contact:

Sai Thum Ai +95 (0) 9-453-132-755

Nang Lao Kham +95 (0) 9-262-108-062

Sai Kon Hseng +66 (0) 62-941-9600

Download this statement in Egnlish HERE.

ထုတ္ျပန္ေၾကညာခ်က္ျမန္မာဘာသာကုိ ဤေနရာတြင္ ရယူႏုိင္သည္။