Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 12:57:47 +0700 (TST) From: Dave Patterson To: wcsbeau@ccs.carleton.ca Message-Id: SALWEEN BASIN DAMS Since 1988, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and the Thai goverment have been discussing the building of dams on border rivers between the two countries. To date as many as five sites have been proposed for megadams on the mainstream of the Salween river, and three projects have been proposed for the Moei river. In addition, dams have been planned for the Kok and Sai rivers in the north and the Klong Kra in the south. The mainstream Salween and Moei dams are now under consideration by the ADB in its plans to develop the greater Mekong sub-region (GMS). All these proposed dams would be used to generate electricity or divert water to Thailand. Revenue from the projects would go to Burma. However, the dams on the Salween annd its tributary, the Moei, are only a fraction of the total number of dams planned for the Salween basin. In fact, this total remains unknown; but at least eighteen dams under four separate proposals are planned for Salween tributaries within Thailand. A total of 24 dams with a total installed capacity of more than 13,000 MW could be built in Salween basin, on the Salween, Moei, Kok, Yuam, Ngao, Rit, Pai and Huay Kaneng rivers. However, little or none of the electricity generated would be used in Burma, whose the total installed capacity as of 1994 was only 738 MW (Norconsult Draft Final Report to the ADB on GMS development, June 1994). At least six, and possibly eight, of the projects have been planned to divert water from the Salween basin to augment flagging water levels in Thailand's Bhumibol dam, following a succession of crippling dry season shortages that started in the late 1980s. As much as 23,400 million cubic meters of water, amounting to 15-20% of the Salween's total annual flow, could be drawn from the mainstream of the Salween and Moei rivers to be carried via a network of tunnels and canals to the Bing and Chao Phaya rivers and their tributaries. IMPACTS If all or even some of these projects were built, their cumulative impacts in regulating and reducing the flow of the Salween and Moei rivers could be enormous. Damming the Salween would affect the land and the people all the way from Shan State in Burma, along the Thai-Burma border, to the Moulmein delta. The construction process would require the cutting and flooding of large amounts of forest, excavation of tunnels and gravel to be used as building material, and the movement of machinery and work crews into previously pristine, relatively undisturbed environments. In populated areas, flooding and changes in river patterns would mean dislocation and disruption for local communities. Infrastructure required for construction of the dams and flooding in the reservoirs would result in loss of forest in some of the most biodiverse and important remaining forests of the region. Wildlife habitat would be lost to inundation. Forests traditionally used by local people for fuelwood and non-timber forest products would also be lost, as would riverbanks used for seasonal crop cultivation. Patches of this forested land have already been destabilized by five years of logging concessions. Upstream communities, in addition to relocation, could face serious changes in water quality and flooding patterns. Dams would obstruct seasonal fish migrations and cut transportation routes in areas where rivers serve as the main communication arteries. Because of extensive faults and seismic activity in the region, downstream communities could be put at serious risk of earthquake, and in the case of a dam rupture, massive floods. In addition, downstream of the dams, significant water reduction could affect local fishing and farming communities the length of the river, and could devastate riverine ecosystems, decrease river fish stocks, and cause bank erosion and changes in river morphology. The Moulmein region could be hardest hit by water reduction and changes in flow. An important spawning and feeding ground for marine aquatic life, the estuary could undergo sudden changes which could greatly reduce fisheries and destroy ecosystems not only in the river's mouth, but also offshore. Saltwater intrusions from the Gulf of Martaban to the Moulmein area could salinize paddy fields and make local well-water unpotable. Furthermore, many of the dam sites are in areas occupied by ethnic groups who have been engaged in civil war against the central Burmese goverment for decades. Some sites have only recently come under government control, and those in territory previously held by the Karen National Union, only after bloody fighting. It is likely that, under risk of sabotage, the SLORC would increase standing troops in development areas. Troop build-ups are feared not only for the frequent brutality of the Burmese army against local villagers, which often includes rape of local women and torture of suspected rebel sympathizers, but also for the concurrent Burmanization of ethnic lands that comes with occupation. The use of forced labor on infrastructure projects in Burma is another well-documented aspect of the widespread human rights abuses enacted by SLORC troops on local people. Karen, Mon, Karenni, Padaung, Shan, Pa-O, Akha, Lahu and other peoples could be used as laborers on the very projects that evict them from their traditional landholdings and threaten their means of livelihood and way of life. EIAs and SIAs In spite of these numerous concerns, no basin studies have been conducted to assess the social and environmental impacts of the damming of the Salween and its tributaries. Most feasibility studies deal only with the economic aspects of dam construction and have not progressed beyond desk level. Under the current regional climate, EIAs and SIAs are primarily conducted less to advise on the wisdom of constructing a project than to ameliorate its potential damage and assign a monetary value of redress. It is likely that as refugees, displaced persons, and perceived enemies of the state, many of those affected would neither be consulted nor awarded compensation for loss of land and livelihood due to forced eviction. The fact remains that almost no documentation of the region's natural biodiversity nor of its peoples, their cultures, livelihoods, and unique traditions, exists. Any fair and valid assessment of the potential effects of dams construction must necessarily proceed from such knowledge. Political implications notwithstanding, the Thai government is now pushing for agreement on which border sites can be developed. The ADB, while publicly maintaining its embargo on aid to Burma, has issued "a 15 billion dollar wake-up call to financiers" in its 1995 ADB Review. It is imperative that no further planning for the Salween basin proceed until a thorough survey and investigation of its environments and communities can be made. As local people's knowledge of their region should form the foundation of a basin inventory, all assessment and planning must be conducted in an atmosphere that involves local people throughout the decision-making process.