ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Myanmar to Push Ahead With Suspended Myitsone Dam Project, Officials Say

China’s government is pushing hard for the resumption of the $3.6 billion project, which was suspended in 2011 amid widespread public opposition.

The confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers in Kachin State, Myanmar, the proposed location of the Myitsone hydropower dam.

Myanmar’s new military-backed government plans to revive a China-backed Myitsone dam project and is expecting to complete it within roughly eight years, according to a report by Reuters.

The report cited two sources ​with knowledge of recent comments by Khet Htein Nan, the chief minister of Kachin State, where the $3.6 billion dam is slated to be built.

Htet Paing Htoo, a member of the Kachin State parliament, told Reuters that work on the project, which was suspended in 2011 due to widespread public opposition, would “begin shortly.”

“An official announcement will be released,” he told the news agency. “The president himself has already stated that it will be restarted.”

Since January, Khet Htein Nan, who previously opposed the dam, has led a series of public meetings across Kachin State, including in the state capital Myitkyina, urging locals to support the project.

At one such meeting in Mohnyin township on June 23, the Kachin News Group reported, the chief minister admitted that he regrets opposing the Myitsone Dam project. He also declared that the military-backed government is determined to press forward with construction.

“As for the Myitsone project, it could take about 10 years to complete, but since a lot of the groundwork was already done before, I believe we can finish it in just over eight years,” he was quoted as saying.

He also accompanied Min Aung Hlaing on the latter’s recent state visit to China, where the resumption of the dam project was reportedly discussed.

The Myitsone dam, which was first agreed on by a previous junta in 2006, is set to be built at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers, which come together to form the Irrawaddy River. At the time, the project was controversial and widely opposed, both because of the likely environmental and social impacts, and because of reports that 90 percent of the electricity generated by the dam would be exported to China.

In 2011, President Then Sein, who headed a military-backed government, announced the suspension of the dam’s construction, citing the “wishes of the people.” The suspension of the project helped catalyze a series of then-unthinkable........

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