Locals want a disruptive dam project in Northern Myanmar terminated once and for all
It has now been five years since the Myitsone Dam project in Northern Myanmar was suspended, but a local ethnic Kachin man, Mung Ra, is still not satisfied. He wishes that the project had been entirely terminated. He frequently laments the loss of his farm and bamboo plantation—he had to leave these behind when he was forcefully relocated for the project. Mung Ra used to live in Dawn Ban, one of over 20 villages that were relocated to make space for the Myitsone Dam. He and his fellow villagers had to leave Dawn Ban behind in 2011 because the village lies in an area designated for a sluice gate. Bamboo trees are not useful to urban residents, but to people like Mung Ra—who live alongside the “Myitsone” confluence of the Mali and N’mai rivers, which forms the Irrawaddy River 26 miles north of the Kachin State capital Myitkyina—bamboo is a crucial source of income.
