Thousands protest China-backed mega-dam in Myanmar

YANGON, AFP: Thousands of people in northern Myanmar took to the streets yesterday to protest against the proposed reinstatement of a Chinese-backed mega-dam they say will cause huge environmental damage and bring little benefit to the country. 

The protest came just days ahead of a trip by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to Beijing for a summit on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. 

Myanmar’s former military junta signed a 2009 deal with Beijing to construct the Myitsone dam in Kachin state. 

But public anger rose to the surface as the country started to transition towards democracy and the $ 3.6 billion project was mothballed two years later. 

If the 6,000 MW dam were built on the country’s famed Ayeyarwady River, it would flood an area the size of Singapore, displacing tens of thousands. 

Now China is increasing pressure on its southern neighbour to revive the controversial project. 

Yesterday protesters marched through the Kachin town of Waimaw, some 50 km from the proposed site of the dam, brandishing banners reading ‘No Myitsone Dam’ and calling for the river to ‘flow freely forever’. 

“Myitsone is our inheritance from our ancestors and we cannot lose it,” protester Tang Gun told AFP by phone. 

He said more than 4,000 people took part in the march while several thousand more had signed a petition pledging their support for the protest.