article 10

Mainichi Daily News / August 3, 2000

"In the First World, they're being decommissioned, blown up. The fact that they do more harm than good is no longer just conjecture. Big dams are obsolete. They're uncool. They're undemocratic." Indian author Arundhati Roy

By Richard Humphries Contributing Writer

Harn Yawnghwe was just 13 when the soldiers came to his house. It was Rangoon, March 2, 1962, and General Ne Win had just launched the coup that would begin the military rule which continues to this day. Harn's brother Myee was killed in cold blood but it was their father the soldiers had come for. That man, Sao Shwe Thaike, had been saopha (prince) of Yawnghwe, a Shan State principality. More importantly, he had also been independent Burma's first president. Eight months later he died in jail under mysterious circumstances.

Harn and his surviving family members had to flee their homeland. Nonetheless, he remains deeply committed to Burma and all its peoples. In 1998, he represented Aung San Suu Kyi at a seminar of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Virginia, USA. Today, Harn Yawnghwe lives in Brussels and is program director for the Euro-Burma Office, a European Union funded prodemocracy organization.

On May 30, 2000, Yawnghwe accompanied Dr. Thaung Htun, the prodemocracy movement's United Nations representative, to Tokyo to visit Japanese government officials. Their purpose was to express their deep concern about Japanese aid and investment, which they felt was benefiting Burma's military clique and not its long-suffering peoples.

At a subsequent professional dinner in Tokyo with correspondents and embassy officials, Harn Yawnghwe emphasized one particular project. "We believe there is a plan to dam the Salween River," he said. "The Salween is one of the last rivers left in its natural state. The Japanese government is involved in the sense that the Electric Power and Development Corporation, Ltd. (EPDC), which is 67% owned by the Ministry of Finance, has done a feasibility study for this dam."

The Salween is a 2,400-kilometer waterway that begins life in China's Tibetan plateau, and travels through Burma while occasionally straddling the Thai border before entering the Gulf of Martaban near Moulmein. It is in fact the last major Southeast Asian river that is free-flowing and it drains a total area of some 320,000 square kilometers.

The projected dam site is at Ta Sarng, a river crossing in southern Shan State, approximately 80 kilometers north from the Thai border. As Burma is ruled by an unpopular and surreally brutal dictatorship, and Shan State is, if anything, turbulent, it would seem at first glance unusual that foreign governments and companies would want to become involved in at all.

Greed is paramount but regional politics and the role of environmental activism have played some role. In the developed world, with a few exceptions, large dam building has declined. There has been more transparency and debate about hypothetical projects and sometimes even ridicule ("a boondoggle visible from Mars") has been enough to stifle the more absurd notions. Dam builders have shifted their attention to the developing world.

Even there, resistance has flared. Attempts in the 1980s to build a dam at Nam Choan on Thailand's River Kwai were eventually defeated, despite official sanction, by vehement public opposition. Thai authorities then looked to that country's neighbors where, it was thought, the rulers would be less discerning and public opinion more easily manipulated or ignored. Thailand wanted more electricity for its industries as well as diverted water to fill its reservoirs and flush out its rivers.

Investors Long For Salween

For years potential builders and funders have eyed the Salween the same way hungry wolves might gaze upon a stray lamb, frolicking in a distant meadow. Various Thai, German and Japanese concerns have carried a series of feasibility studies since 1979. The recently completed EPDC one is only the latest but, it is believed, the definitive one that will lead to final design and construction. In this sense the term "feasibility" can be taken to mean not "whether" but "how."

On its English Internet site, the EPDC announces that it "will give great respect to the natural environment and regional communities and strive to construct and operate power generation facilities in a manner that harmonizes with the natural environment and regional communities." Boilerplate statements such as those can ring hollow. When asked if the EPDC had spoken with him or with local communities in Shan State, Harn Yawnghwe was emphatic. "No, we've had no contact. We believe they only talk with the SPDC (Burmese junta). There's been no discussion with the local population. Nothing."

The opposite may be true, and not just of the EPDC but of all companies involved at the project site. According to monitoring groups such as Salween Watch, the Shan Herald Agency for News, and TERRA (Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance), a Thai environmental NGO, some 400 to 500 Burmese troops have moved into position along the Salween to "protect" those companies involved in preparatory work on the dam.

The main company involved is Thai, the GMS Public Power Co. Ltd. It hopes to sell the electricity to EGAT, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. GMS is part of Thailand's MDX group of companies and has been involved in dam projects in Laos, Cambodia, and in China's Yunnan province. The plan for the Salween is thought to call for a concrete-faced rockfill dam, 188 meters in height. That would make it mainland Southeast Asia's highest dam. A 230-kilometer long reservoir would flood an area of at least 640 square kilometers. It would store about one-third of the Salween's annual flow.

The logistics of such a project would be immense, as would the cost, at least USD 3 billion by one estimate. By no means does GMS have the financial wherewithal to undertake the project. It is effectively bankrupt, but not without influential friends on its board and abroad. Rumors abound of funding interest from Japanese sources, perhaps via a third country, but they are as yet unconfirmed.

Proponents of big dams will of course point to their benefits. And it can't be denied that dams supply a significant amount of the world's present energy needs--20 percent by some accounts. Large dams typically generate far more electricity than nuclear or coal-fired plants. Additionally, dams can also be used regulate river flow, divert that flow elsewhere, manage water demand, and by dampening rapids they can assist navigation.

But, like the poisoned pawn taken without sufficient forethought in a chess match, disadvantages have proved overwhelming with the passage of time. Frequent cost overruns detract from energy savings and sedimentation can ruin efficiency. Worse, tens of millions of people worldwide, very often helpless indigenous minorities, have been forced off their lands.

The Salween project would be no different. Ethnic conflict still rages in Shan State and an estimated 300,000 Shan have been forcibly relocated by the junta since 1995. Forced displacement is also occurring in the dam site/projected reservoir area. "What typically happens is that you're given three days notice to leave and if you are found in that area after three days, you are shot," explained Harn Yawnghwe.

Ironically, some members of those "regional communities" have managed to escape the terror by rafting down the Salween and past Ta Sarng on their way to exile. One Shan man reported to human rights monitors that, "I saw drilling machines on both sides of the bank and some were sucking water and drilling. 3 machines on each bank." Should the reservoir be built he, and thousands others, would likely have no homes to dream of returning to.

Disease Threat

In tropical areas, dams can increase deadly disease vectors. Shan State already lies within an endemic malarial zone. Areas of stagnant water along the edges of the reservoir would be an ideal breeding ground. And, according to TERRA, other ecological disasters would ensue.

"The fishes of the Salween River Basin have evolved in a riverine system. If the river were transformed into a reservoir, most of these fish species would be extirpated by the reservoir, as will many of the fish species living downstream of the dam due to the ecological impacts of altered water flow and the poor quality of water released from the reservoir."

Building the dam itself would likely add to Burma's appalling human right's record. Large infrastructure projects have typically involved the massive use of forced labor, a practice the International Labor Organization has taken Burma to task for. Complicity does not end with the junta though, and prodemocracy groups are well aware of this. "We would caution the Japanese government for its involvement here," Harn Yawnghwe says. "If the dam is ever built, you can be very sure forced labor would be used."

When Arundhati Roy made the quote at the top she was speaking about the furor surrounding India's Sardar Sarovar dam project. Public displeasure over that project was so vehement that even the Japanese government got cold feet, withdrawing from funding part of it in 1990. Opponents of the Salween project hope that Japan will again see the light and not play any further role in helping to build that dam.

There may be a further incentive for companies and governments investing or thinking of investing in Burma, as Dr. Thaung Htun has pointed out. "Yes, we clearly say the Burmese regime is illegitimate. They have no authority to manage the resources of the country. Based on this we clearly mention that all contracts which have been done with the military government will be reviewed by the next democratic government."

(Richard Humphries is a freelance journalist living in Japan and regular Asia Focus contributor) RH


	Controversy Dogs Burma's Salween Dam Mainichi Daily News / August 3, 2000 "In the First World, they're being decommissioned, blown up. The fact that they do more harm than good is no longer just conjecture. Big dams are obsolete. They're uncool. They're undemocratic." Indian author Arundhati Roy By Richard Humphries Contributing Writer Harn Yawnghwe was just 13 when the soldiers came to his house. It was Rangoon, March 2, 1962, and General Ne Win had just launched the coup that would begin the military rule which continues to this day. Harn's brother Myee was killed in cold blood but it was their father the soldiers had come for. That man, Sao Shwe Thaike, had been saopha (prince) of Yawnghwe, a Shan State principality. More importantly, he had also been independent Burma's first president. Eight months later he died in jail under mysterious circumstances. Harn and his surviving family members had to flee their homeland. Nonetheless, he remains deeply committed to Burma and all its peoples. In 1998, he represented Aung San Suu Kyi at a seminar of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Virginia, USA. Today, Harn Yawnghwe lives in Brussels and is program director for the Euro-Burma Office, a European Union funded prodemocracy organization. On May 30, 2000, Yawnghwe accompanied Dr. Thaung Htun, the prodemocracy movement's United Nations representative, to Tokyo to visit Japanese government officials. Their purpose was to express their deep concern about Japanese aid and investment, which they felt was benefiting Burma's military clique and not its long-suffering peoples. At a subsequent professional dinner in Tokyo with correspondents and embassy officials, Harn Yawnghwe emphasized one particular project. "We believe there is a plan to dam the Salween River," he said. "The Salween is one of the last rivers left in its natural state. The Japanese government is involved in the sense that the Electric Power and Development Corporation, Ltd. (EPDC), which is 67% owned by the Ministry of Finance, has done a feasibility study for this dam." The Salween is a 2,400-kilometer waterway that begins life in China's Tibetan plateau, and travels through Burma while occasionally straddling the Thai border before entering the Gulf of Martaban near Moulmein. It is in fact the last major Southeast Asian river that is free-flowing and it drains a total area of some 320,000 square kilometers. The projected dam site is at Ta Sarng, a river crossing in southern Shan State, approximately 80 kilometers north from the Thai border. As Burma is ruled by an unpopular and surreally brutal dictatorship, and Shan State is, if anything, turbulent, it would seem at first glance unusual that foreign governments and companies would want to become involved in at all. Greed is paramount but regional politics and the role of environmental activism have played some role. In the developed world, with a few exceptions, large dam building has declined. There has been more transparency and debate about hypothetical projects and sometimes even ridicule ("a boondoggle visible from Mars") has been enough to stifle the more absurd notions. Dam builders have shifted their attention to the developing world. Even there, resistance has flared. Attempts in the 1980s to build a dam at Nam Choan on Thailand's River Kwai were eventually defeated, despite official sanction, by vehement public opposition. Thai authorities then looked to that country's neighbors where, it was thought, the rulers would be less discerning and public opinion more easily manipulated or ignored. Thailand wanted more electricity for its industries as well as diverted water to fill its reservoirs and flush out its rivers. Investors Long For Salween For years potential builders and funders have eyed the Salween the same way hungry wolves might gaze upon a stray lamb, frolicking in a distant meadow. Various Thai, German and Japanese concerns have carried a series of feasibility studies since 1979. The recently completed EPDC one is only the latest but, it is believed, the definitive one that will lead to final design and construction. In this sense the term "feasibility" can be taken to mean not "whether" but "how." On its English Internet site, the EPDC announces that it "will give great respect to the natural environment and regional communities and strive to construct and operate power generation facilities in a manner that harmonizes with the natural environment and regional communities." Boilerplate statements such as those can ring hollow. When asked if the EPDC had spoken with him or with local communities in Shan State, Harn Yawnghwe was emphatic. "No, we've had no contact. We believe they only talk with the SPDC (Burmese junta). There's been no discussion with the local population. Nothing." The opposite may be true, and not just of the EPDC but of all companies involved at the project site. According to monitoring groups such as Salween Watch, the Shan Herald Agency for News, and TERRA (Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance), a Thai environmental NGO, some 400 to 500 Burmese troops have moved into position along the Salween to "protect" those companies involved in preparatory work on the dam. The main company involved is Thai, the GMS Public Power Co. Ltd. It hopes to sell the electricity to EGAT, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. GMS is part of Thailand's MDX group of companies and has been involved in dam projects in Laos, Cambodia, and in China's Yunnan province. The plan for the Salween is thought to call for a concrete-faced rockfill dam, 188 meters in height. That would make it mainland Southeast Asia's highest dam. A 230-kilometer long reservoir would flood an area of at least 640 square kilometers. It would store about one-third of the Salween's annual flow. The logistics of such a project would be immense, as would the cost, at least USD 3 billion by one estimate. By no means does GMS have the financial wherewithal to undertake the project. It is effectively bankrupt, but not without influential friends on its board and abroad. Rumors abound of funding interest from Japanese sources, perhaps via a third country, but they are as yet unconfirmed. Proponents of big dams will of course point to their benefits. And it can't be denied that dams supply a significant amount of the world's present energy needs--20 percent by some accounts. Large dams typically generate far more electricity than nuclear or coal-fired plants. Additionally, dams can also be used regulate river flow, divert that flow elsewhere, manage water demand, and by dampening rapids they can assist navigation. But, like the poisoned pawn taken without sufficient forethought in a chess match, disadvantages have proved overwhelming with the passage of time. Frequent cost overruns detract from energy savings and sedimentation can ruin efficiency. Worse, tens of millions of people worldwide, very often helpless indigenous minorities, have been forced off their lands. The Salween project would be no different. Ethnic conflict still rages in Shan State and an estimated 300,000 Shan have been forcibly relocated by the junta since 1995. Forced displacement is also occurring in the dam site/projected reservoir area. "What typically happens is that you're given three days notice to leave and if you are found in that area after three days, you are shot," explained Harn Yawnghwe. Ironically, some members of those "regional communities" have managed to escape the terror by rafting down the Salween and past Ta Sarng on their way to exile. One Shan man reported to human rights monitors that, "I saw drilling machines on both sides of the bank and some were sucking water and drilling. 3 machines on each bank." Should the reservoir be built he, and thousands others, would likely have no homes to dream of returning to. Disease Threat In tropical areas, dams can increase deadly disease vectors. Shan State already lies within an endemic malarial zone. Areas of stagnant water along the edges of the reservoir would be an ideal breeding ground. And, according to TERRA, other ecological disasters would ensue. "The fishes of the Salween River Basin have evolved in a riverine system. If the river were transformed into a reservoir, most of these fish species would be extirpated by the reservoir, as will many of the fish species living downstream of the dam due to the ecological impacts of altered water flow and the poor quality of water released from the reservoir." Building the dam itself would likely add to Burma's appalling human right's record. Large infrastructure projects have typically involved the massive use of forced labor, a practice the International Labor Organization has taken Burma to task for. Complicity does not end with the junta though, and prodemocracy groups are well aware of this. "We would caution the Japanese government for its involvement here," Harn Yawnghwe says. "If the dam is ever built, you can be very sure forced labor would be used." When Arundhati Roy made the quote at the top she was speaking about the furor surrounding India's Sardar Sarovar dam project. Public displeasure over that project was so vehement that even the Japanese government got cold feet, withdrawing from funding part of it in 1990. Opponents of the Salween project hope that Japan will again see the light and not play any further role in helping to build that dam. There may be a further incentive for companies and governments investing or thinking of investing in Burma, as Dr. Thaung Htun has pointed out. "Yes, we clearly say the Burmese regime is illegitimate. They have no authority to manage the resources of the country. Based on this we clearly mention that all contracts which have been done with the military government will be reviewed by the next democratic government." (Richard Humphries is a freelance journalist living in Japan and regular Asia Focus contributor) RH