Dam

The Karen National Union is outraged that media reports said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the with the government to construct a hydro-power dam as untrue. The KNU issued a denial after Karen communities inside Burma and overseas, incensed by the reports, lashed out at the ethnic political organization for giving the go-ahead for the government to…

Burma’s Government is engaged in the illegal displacement of thousands of its own citizens, a leading human rights organization has concluded. The New York based Physicians for Human Rights collected evidence of 8,000 people being relocated against their will to make way for dam projects in Shan State. One example cited in the report was the Upper Paunglaung dam, which…

Shan community representatives presented 23,717 signatures opposing the construction of plans to dams the Salween River to the Australian company doing the environmental and social impact assessments (EIA/SIA) for the Mong Ton dam in southern Shan State. The Shan community representatives delivered their petition to the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) offices in Yangon. The Mong Ton dam is the…

Land confiscation in Karen state has continues to increase according to a new report from the Karen Human Rights Group. The KHRG report titled, “With only our voices, what can we do?” was released on July 15 in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. The report documents the increased land confiscation by government officials and the Burma Army and…

Karen villagers whose lands were taken by companies to build a hydropower dam are angry and now want their lands returned. The villagers from the Palet Wa region in Thandaung Township lost their homes and land to a hydro-power dam in Htantabin Township are protesting and demanding their lands are returned from the companies. More than a 100 villagers and…

Villagers from Kunhing on the upper Salween River are strongly opposed to the Mong Ton Dam project that they say will destroy their way of life. The villagers released a statement on the 30th April listing their opposition to the damming of the Salween. “Our  ‘thousand island’ Kunhing township,  is one  of  the 16 townships  that will  be  flooded by the…

The Australian Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation’s (SMEC) cancelled its plans to hold a public meeting to discuss the Mong Ton mega-dam on the Salween River after hearing that hundreds of villagers were going to hold a protest against the dam. The Shan Human Rights Foundation said in statement released to the media said that a public meeting planned by the…

A two-day natural and cultural heritage event to honor the the Salween River and its people will be held in Hpa-an Karen State from the 27 to 28 March. A statement released by the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) said that the event will be the “first time that state government, local and national civic organizations, academics and…

Earlier this month a coalition of Karen environmental community based groups, the Karen River Watch, joined local villagers to protest the building of the hydro-power Hat Gyi Dam, in Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State. The protest marked the International Day of Action for Rivers and Against Dams, held each year on March 14, 2015. The Hat Gyi Dam is one of…

The Karen River Watch, a coalition of Karen environmental community based groups raise concerns over the proposed hydropower dam projects on the Salween River and repeated their call for a halt to all development projects. Together with local villagers, KRW held a protest near Hat Gyi Dam, one of the proposed dam sites in Hlaingbwe Township, Karen State on March…