"Knowledge Vacuum and Conflict Plague Salween River", 14 March 2015

[O]n the west bank of the Salween north of Hpa-an, the capital of Karen State, in eastern Burma. Saw Nyan Win has fished the river for decades, and now works as a field-researcher for the Karen Environmental Social Action Network (KESAN)...Saw Nyan Win is one of thousands of Salween fishermen who face an unknown future. Caught up in a web of international energy demand and supply, the fate of the Salween lies with the Burmese government, Burmese, Chinese and Thai hydropower companies...Desire to tame its wild power is fierce, sometimes resulting in flares of conflict along its banks. There are currently five ongoing dam plans for the Salween in Burma, with at least thirteen more in China...Burma’s Deputy Minister of Electrical Power Maw Thar Htwe told Parliament in 2014 that the government will continue forging ahead with the Salween dams...Saw Nyan Win and other environmentalists are calling for more time to study the Salween’s watershed before the series of dams unleashes a raft of impacts on local people and the environment. Activists are worried that in the tide of billion dollar deals, genuine assessments of the dams environmental and social impacts are being swept aside...Communities like fisherman Saw Nyan Win’s, which are largely dependent on fisheries as a source of protein and income, are left guessing what the effects will be on their livelihoods. Two environmental assessments that have been conducted for the Kunlong and Hatgyi dams have been widely criticized for being inadequate and lacking transparency, bypassing consultation or input from affected people...Hostilities along the Salween continue to be linked to the need to secure both access routes to and the dam sites themselves. The Burma Rivers Network recently issued a press release in which the group called for an immediate halt to Salween dam projects, “which are fuelling war and violating the rights of local peoples.”...Urging Chinese and Thai hydropower companies descending on the Salween to allow the peace process to materialize before proceeding with the dam projects, Pianporn Deetes said: “This is the reverse part of the story, they [local people] are fleeing for their lives, they are going to the border, they are hiding themselves in the jungle, their land has been confiscated, and the dam is being built. What will they have when peace returns to their home? It will be under a reservoir, it will be under the ownership of the dam company.”