Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The livelihoods of around 16,000 villagers along the Shweili River in Shan State were being severely affected by drops and surges in water levels since Chinese built dams upriver in China’s Yunnan Province, a report by two Shan NGOs released today said.
The river, known as the Nam Mao in Shan and Longjiang in Chinese, flows through the north of Shan State as a major tributary of Burma’s Irrawaddy River. According to the report launched by the Shan Sapawa Environmental Organisation and the Shan Women’s Action Network at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, residents of at least 20 villages in Muse Township who run river ferries had seen their incomes halved. The business of traders in Muse who use the ferries to transport goods had also been hit after drastic falls in water levels.
The report also aimed to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of Chinese dams on the trans-boundary river.
In January, local people started to notice water levels falling and in April, they had dropped to unprecedented lows. In some places the water was only knee-deep, handicapping boats. People were forced to carry their own goods, and in the worst cases, boats ran aground mid-river.
The recently built Longjiang Hydropower Project had increased suffering to local villagers that rely on riverbank business, the report said. Located in Luxi County, Dehong Prefecture of Yunan and 15 miles (25 kilometres) north of Wan Ding on the Sino-Burmese border, the 328-foot-high (100-metre) dam has the capacity to produce 240 megawatts of electricity. The dam wall was put up in November 2008 and the first generating turbine began operating in July this year, it said.
In their report, the NGOs urged the Chinese government “to investigate and mitigate the disruptive impacts of the dam”. Moreover, the groups also asked Beijing to carry out trans-boundary impact assessments ahead of the construction of any further dams in China.
In 2008, Chinese companies built two other dams on the river; the Yunan Dehong Nongling Hydropower Project, near Meng Yang Town, Lianghe County, also in Dehong, has a dam wall 90.5 metres high and produces 180 MW of electricity. The Shweili Dam in Namkham Township, northern Shan State, Burma is about 47 metres high and generates 600 MW of electricity.
The report added that Chinese companies were planning to build 25 more dams in Burma.
At the launch, Thai activists also shared their experience of the downstream impacts of Chinese dams built on the Mekong River.
