Kayah residents protest planned Pwunchaung dam
About 500 residents of Bawlakhe township, Kayah State, on October 11 protested plans to build a dam on Pwunchaung Stream, as water and soil examination continues. Transparency and environmental impact are the major concerns for the protestors, who already sent letters to the president and state counsellor with their signatures attached in August. U Win Oo, a protest organiser, said the project is so secretive that they have only recently learned of its existence. “We were told that the project’s preliminary tasks started in 2014,” he said. “At that time, we did not hear anything. This is very bad. How can such a hydropower project be started without letting the public know first?” According to local civil society groups, the proposed 139-megawatt dam project, known as Upper Hawkham, is backed by three companies, including one in Myanmar and one in Singapore. The state minister for electricity was unreachable for confirmation on October 11.
