Burma’s president calls halt on Myitsone dam

Conservation organisations delighted
October 2011: Burma's President Thein Sein has announced that the controversial Myitsone Dam on the Irrawaddy River would be halted. In a groundbreaking move, he says he has made the landmark decision to ‘to respect the will of the people'.

The £2.4 billion Myitsone hydropower project would have submerged the confluence of the Irrawaddy River in Kachin State and created a reservoir the size of Singapore. The project is the central part of a seven-dam cascade proposed to be built with £13 billion in Chinese investment. It is located in one of the world's top biodiversity hotspots, would displace 12,000 people, and would irreversibly affect Burma's central river system and rice-growing area.

Environmental and human rights organisation International Rivers says the decision as ‘a fantastic breakthrough' for civil society groups in Burma and their partners in China and around the world.

Dam builders can no longer rely on dictatorial governmentsGrace Mang, programme coordinator at International Rivers, said: ‘The suspension of the Myitsone Dam is a great success for civil society groups in Burma and throughout the world. The decision shows that dam builders can no longer rely on dictatorial governments to push through projects that are rejected by their populations.

‘China Power Investment Corporation and other dam builders should now reconsider other planned projects on the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers.'

The Myitsone Dam is strongly opposed by the Kachin People's Organization, Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, civil society organisations in Burma, and their partner groups in China, Thailand, and around the world.

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