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dam-l LS: Appeal for action on Salween Dam

APPEAL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTION ON THE SALWEEN MEGA-DAM PROJECT

After years of talk but little action, there are now strong indications
of serious efforts on behalf of Thai, Burmese and Japanese companies to
gain approval and funds for damming the mighty Salween River in Burma.

The dam would be for electricity generation plus large-scale diversion
of water from the Salween and into Thailand's perennially depleted dams
and its polluted Chaophraya River.

If built, the dam - or dams - would have far greater environmental
impacts than the controversial Burma -Thailand Yadana gas pipeline. It
would also have many of the same negative human rights, political and
economic consequences.

These moves come in the wake of the announcement of the US $ 30 billion
Japanese economic recovery plan by the conservative LDP government, and
talk of resumed humanitarian and technical aid by the UN and World Bank.

We ask your help in opposing this unacceptable project and the socially
and environmentally unsound corruption-ridden development ideology that
it is a part of.

On the 2nd of February the Thai Government is reportedly to decide
whether to approve a proposal by the Science Ministry to carry out a
feasibility study on what it calls the Salween Water Diversion Project.
According to Science, Technology and Environment Minister Suwit
Khunkitti, the feasibility study will be carried out as quickly as
possible. The Ministry is seeking 185 million Thai Baht (approximately
US $ 5.5 million) for the study, a notably large budget for a
feasibility study.

The Salween River is one of the great rivers of South East Asia. It is
a cold, fast flowing river that runs through earthquake-prone, lightly
populated and steep mountainous areas for most of its course. In Burma
it flows through the Shan, Karenni, Karen and Mon states, areas torn by
decades of war. Its rapid fall, high gorges and the relatively sparse
adjacent population make it attractive to dam builders.

Although different official sources state different things the
justification for the dam will be twofold. The dam is being planned to
divert water from the Salween into Thailand, as well as to produce an
estimated 3,300 to 3,600 megawatts of electricity for Thailand and
Burma.

The proposed dam would enable Burma to exploit the Salween's large
potential to generate electrical energy. For years Burma has suffered
daily blackouts even in its major cities, a problem to which there is
little relief in sight.

For Thailand the dam could replenish its dwindling water supplies.
Parts of the country have faced severe water shortages in 1992, 1995,
and 1998/99 due to degradation of the watershed forests, climate
change and conflicting water management objectives. Competition between
farm irrigation requirements on one side and hydropower, industrial and
city requirements on the other has contributed to the shortages. The two
largest dams in Thailand, the Bhumiphol and Sirikit dams, frequently do
not have enough water for irrigation, let alone water for the government
prioritized "cheap" hydro-electricity. Currently the country is in the
throes of a drought year so officials are actively promoting water
supply projects for all they are worth.

Thailand does not now need hydro-power as it is suddenly faced with an
energy glut due to contraction of the market following its economic
crash. Nevertheless its politicians and the vested interest groups
behind them, like consultants and big construction companies, are still
pushing for the creation of more large power plants.

Successive Thai governments and officials have long been talking about
water from the Salween being channeled to the Bhumiphol and Sirikit
reservoirs hundreds of kilometers away. The Thai government, in the
context of the "constructive engagement" approach to relations with its
aggressive Burmese neighbours, has frequently raised with them the
subject of joint development of a dam. The ruling Burmese State Peace
and Development Council has in more recent years begun reciprocating,
and has suggested its own sites.

These negotiations resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for
Thailand to buy 1,500 megawatts of electricity from Burma by the year
2010 being signed in August 1997. An MoU on the supply of water to
Thailand from the Salween had nevertheless proven elusive. The Burmese
in late 1993 disagreed on the content of the draft MoU proposed by
Thailand. However in the article on the 20th January 1999 the Thai
Science, Technology and Environment Minister stated that the MoU with
the Burmese government for the use of water from the Salween River has
already been signed. If so, the agreement has been signed in secret and
without the public having an opportunity to evaluate or comment upon the
many implications of such an agreement.

Previously, the economic cost of the dam, combined with its intense
political sensitivity and the inevitable environmental and social issues
would have rendered its construction impossible. Figures for the price
tag on the dam quoted by local sources familiar with the current
feasibility project range from US$4 billion up to $7 billion. Now
however there are indicators that the Japanese government may under
certain circumstances be more inclined to accommodate the request. A
recent UN/World Bank offer of US $ 1 billion in conditional assistance
may also indicate that Western countries may not oppose such a move
strongly enough to prevent it.

The Japanese government has been criticized in recent years for
resuming some aid payments to the Burmese regime. It has however been
noted that the Japanese are concerned about greatly increasing Chinese
influence, presence, money and technology in Burma. There is strong
lobbying in Japan for further resumption of financial assistance to
Burma to pre-empt the loss to China of opportunity in Burma.

The conservative Japanese government has recently introduced a US $ 30
billion fund called the Miyazawa fund. The fund is to give a boost to
regional governments but has been made subject to the condition that
funded projects utilise Japanese expertise and technology. Japan has
supported many dam projects in the past, and Japanese consultants from
the quasi-governmental Electric Power Development Corporation (EPDC)
have been active in the preliminary studies for damming the Salween. One
source alleges that EPDC has now signed a 94 million yen (US$796,000)
contract to do a feasibility study on the Salween. It is therefore
possible that the Japanese Government - and other governments and
institutions - may decide to support their political agendas in Burma
through support for the dam via the Thai government.

The Thai Science, Technology and Environment Minister and the Deputy
Minister have both announced the intention to seek 5.5 billion baht from
Japan for the Salween Water Diversion Project, as reported in the
English language daily the Bangkok Post (14/1/99). With Japanese funding
as an engine, the project may in time become a serious possibility if
people's opposition is not convincing enough.

Towards implementing the dam project on the ground, there have been a
number of preliminary studies done on damming or diverting the Salween
River. Tentative plans for no less than 6 different sites have been
mentioned in various contexts and publications. However until recent
moves became evident there had been no detailed studies, and no planning
up to even the pre-feasibility study stage.

Survey work is being conducted in the Shan State at a site 200 kilometers
north of Chiang Mai. Work is being done by multinational survey teams
that include Japanese, Burmese and Thais. Surveying work reportedly
includes drilling and blasting deep holes in the Salween riverbank and
elaborate streamflow measurements. People close to the project say that
the full feasibility study was to begin on 1st January 1999, although
detailed fieldwork was already underway in October.

The work is being done at a steep gorge an hour upstream of a major
river crossing point called Ta Hsang (also called Wan Hsa La). The gorge
is a little distance south of the confluence of the Salween and the Nam
Hsim River, one of the larger tributaries.

Ta Hsang is of relatively high elevation, a most important factor if
large amounts of water are to be diverted and made to flow by gravity
into Thailand. The chosen survey site is also close to both of Thailand's
Ping and Kok Rivers. It is along these watercourses that water may be
diverted through a long system of tunnels and canals into the Bhumiphol
and Sirikit dams, Thailand's two largest.

The main visible company involved in the survey work is MDX Power Plc.,
a Thai development company specialising in dam consultancy and
construction. An MDX company representative claims it has signed a
contract with the Burmese government to do the feasibility study. It
also claims to be putting up the money itself to do the work, despite
rumours that the company and its partner Italian - Thai Development Plc.
are both currently financially weak. It is not currently clear or
confirmed as to the level of EPDC involvement in the surveying, or if
they are channeling funds to MDX to do the groundwork and to employ
local contractors.

In the context of the Ta Hsang site the involvement of MDX Power Plc.
is especially significant. This is because the company for the past 2
years has been involved in surveying a potential dam site on the Kok
River, along with Italian-Thai and the large Japanese Marubeni
Corporation. The 150 MW dam on the Burmese section of the Kok River
would be no more than 25 kilometers from the floodwaters of a Salween
Dam. It is less implausible than most of the other proposed water
diversion schemes to assume that that the Salween would be diverted into
the Kok river.

Not least of the reasons why is that another controversial scheme is in
the last planning stages, the Kok-Ing-Nan Water Diversion Project. The
Kok-Ing-Nan Water Diversion Project aims to send water from the Kok
and Ing Rivers, both tributaries of the Mekong, into the Nan River which
flows into the Sirikit Dam and ultimately into the Chaophraya River. It
would involve 117 kilometres of canals and tunnels and a blocking dam on
the Ing River. The final feasibility study of this powerfully backed
project is to be completed in February 1999.

In regard to the Salween dam, a senior MDX advisor, ex-Democrat MP and
government minister named Dr. Subin Pinkayan has reportedly approached
the Shan armed resistance through intermediaries to persuade them not to
obstruct the surveying of the dam. The Shan State Army (South) is
believed to have said they will not oppose the survey but said that the
dam must not be built without consultation with the people and NGO's.

A logging company called Thai Sawat has reportedly been closely involved
in the facilitation of these negotiations. The company, which jointly
holds a concession with B & F Goodrich Co. Ltd. has been deforesting the
area under concession arrangements with both the Burmese military and
Khun Sa's MTA since 1989. The company has been building roads throughout
the area in cooperation with the Burmese government and groups such as
the southern Wa faction. of the United Wa State Party. It is believed to
be seeking a concession to log the areas to be flooded by the dam.

Despite the ample evidence that serious studies have been underway
since at least October 1998 the Thai government did not announce any
plans for damming the Salween until mid-January, after articles appeared
in the South China Morning Post and local newspapers. Even then the
government ministers studiously avoided mentioning the project in the
context of the Sirikit Dam or the Kok-Ing- Nan Water Diversion Project,
despite the logical connection between the two, and despite statements of
intent by previous governments. The omission is almost certainly due to
the fact that both projects are controversial and that the Thai
government wishes to avoid the early linking up of the Thai anti-dam
movement and the numerous groups opposing the numerous abuses of the
Burmese regime.

Reasons to oppose the dam abound. Its construction would have very
serious environmental impacts. To raise the water level to the point
where 10 percent (or more) of the Salween's flow could be pumped up to
divert it into Thailand's rivers the dam would have to be a high dam.
Such a dam would have a very large and long reservoir, and would flood a
considerable area of forest and rice terraces up the valleys of its
tributaries. For water to flow by gravity into Thailand the dam would
have to be extraordinarily high and would have a massive reservoir and
even greater impacts.

There would be a much greater earthquake hazard in a quake prone area.
Deforestation would be serious both from resettlement or illegal
subsistence farming by displaced people and by logging companies that
would be granted concessions in the area to be flooded. Water borne
diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis would increase or be
introduced. Indigenous fish populations and land-based wildlife would be
radically affected or annihilated. Riversides would be completely
changed all the way down to the delta, with riverbank erosion and
possible disappearance of islands in the delta. Well water supplies in
the city of Moulmein would likely be affected with saltwater intrusion.
Deprived of fertility from the river-borne silt, farming in the highly
productive Salween floodplains would come to rely increasingly on scarce
and expensive chemical inputs. Fish reproduction in the river, delta and
along the coast, already affected by heavy fishing by foreign trawlers
and clearance of mangrove forests would be further affected. There would
be numerous impacts on the environment from the infrastructure that
would be built to serve the dam. Yet more impacts would accrue from the
uses to which the energy from the dam is put, such as large-scale mining
and polluting industries.

None of the previous dams built or planned by the Burmese government
have had environmental impact assessments done for them. Even if an EIA
was to be conducted it seems highly unlikely that it would be made
public or given any serious attention by the authorities on either side
of the border. There is little evidence that a proper environmental
assessment (EIA) will be done.

The project is questionable from an economic point of view due to the
predictable short life of the dam due to the very high silt levels
carried by the river from the increasingly deforested hills. Very long
power transmission lines would need to be installed to deliver the power
to Thailand and to central Burma. Similarly, very long and expensive
tunnels, canals and riverbank alterations would be needed to deliver
water to the dams.

There is little evidence to show that a proper social impact assessment
(SIA) will be done either. Given the extreme human rights violations
that continue to take place in the Shan State and elsewhere in Burma it
would be totally unrealistic to expect compensation to be given to those
affected by the dam, let alone much improvement in their lives. The
people in the region where the dam is being planned have already been
subjected to 3 years of especially intense military suppression. The
area to the west of the dam survey site has been the focus of the
Burmese military's forced relocation program that has resulted in
large-scale depopulation. According to the Shan Human Rights Foundation
over 1400 small and large villages with an estimated population of
300,000 people have been affected by the forced moves. The site of the
dam survey and a substantial part of the area that would be flooded by
any dam built on the river is land that has seen recent forced
relocations.

The Burmese government does not have a good social record. It has been
waging brutal war against the Shan and other indigenous populations in
the area for the past 37 years. It is widely accused of profiting from
and controlling much of the drug trade from the region, which is among
the worst in the world. Furthermore, its past history with development
projects such as the Burma to Thailand Yadana gas pipeline is fraught
with human rights abuses, the subject of a major law suit in the US
courts.

The Burmese government and its army would be key participants in the
project. Burmese army engineers are reportedly involved in the surveying
work. They are also in the process of building a bridge over the Salween
at Ta Hsang, a piece of infrastructure that would be used in the
servicing of the dam construction. Roads into the area have been upgraded
with the help of the Thai Sawat logging company. There are allegations of
forced labour on the road and bridge construction. Both the construction
and surveying work is taking place under heavy Burmese Army protection.

Aside from the surveying at Ta Hsang there is also mention of interest
in another site lower on the Salween in the Karen State. This location,
close to where the Salween empties out into its floodplain, is called
Hat Gyi. It is evidently preferred by Burma's ruling State Peace and
Development Council due to its being closest to three major centres in
Burma that would use electricity generated by a dam, and is most within
the military's tenuous sphere of control.

Although improbable due to its relatively low elevation, Hat Gyi has
also been mentioned in the context of water diversion. A Thai study made
during another long drought in 1995 postulated the siphoning off of
Salween water from where the Moei and Salween Rivers meet and pumping it
into a dam on another Salween tributary, further up into yet another
dam, and from there along a long tunnel from whence it would flow into
the Bhumiphol Dam. Construction of a dam at Hat Gyi would mean the lower
dam at Mae Lama Luang, next to the large Karen refugee camp called Mae
Ramu Klo, would not need to be built as the area would be inundated by
the larger dam. This idea has again been raised by the Thai Science,
Technology and Environment Minister as one of two of the alternatives
put forward for public display in the context of the Salween Water
Diversion Project.

Whilst nothing is certain in regard to the ultimate decision on whether
to build the dam or not, when to build it, and where the very large
amounts of capital would be found for the project, there is still reason
for more than passing concern that a large multipurpose dam is to be
built. The Thai Cabinet approval of the US $ 5.5 million feasibility
study represents a large step towards its final approval. It is highly
unlikely that the would-be dam builders will turn aside from the project
on the grounds of later information about the environmental, social and
economic costs of the proposed dam after having spent such an amount of
money on it.

It is all too evident that the successive governments of Thailand are
intent on large scale, ecologically devastating, inequitable development
projects that benefit construction companies, industrialists, loggers
and officials that approve the projects. While acknowledging that the
problem is due to the destruction of the watersheds, little effort is
put into addressing the inequitable land tenure or prevention of the
forest fires and illegal logging that are the primary causes of this
destruction. It is doubtful that most farmers in Thailand would be able
to afford water from the 4-7 billion dollar project. The users will
almost certainly be limited to city dwellers, electricity producers,
wealthy farmers and industries who can afford to pay for the water.

On the part of the Burmese government, it is equally evident that making
a huge dam in the land of the Shan people is an act of neo-colonial
occupation, if not an act of war. Such natural resource exploitation as
the dam, mining concessions, logging and fisheries concessions and the
Yadana gas pipeline has been done in the interest of securing cooperation
against its ethnic and political opponents in the border states, or to
gain revenue for the military. The military government has repeatedly
demonstrated its lack of concern for civilized norms - such as respecting
the basic rights of their own nationals, the borders of other countries,
or the environment.

Such a dam would not serve as a "peace keeping dam" as was suggested
during the period of dictatorship in Thailand - instead it would add to
the burden of human suffering by strengthening the Burmese military
dictatorship.

All factors considered, the construction of dams and related
infrastructure that would significantly alter the 3 major watersheds of
South East Asia is an example of an unsound development that should be
opposed.

There is very little time left before the 2nd of February. However if
people can send brief polite faxes or emails expressing opposition to
this project to the Thai Government and the newspapers before it is over
it may be helpful.

If the Government decides in favour of carrying out the study, it will
be time for action. We will need to ensure that the many social,
economic, political and environmental concerns are adequately addressed,
and not glossed over. There is a need to ensure that the wrong-doings of
those who would like to profit from the making of this dam at the
expense of the people and their environment will be exposed.

For further information and updates, please contact

Salween_Watch@hotmail.com>




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Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
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