Development on Arakan’s Rivers: A Lifeline Being Severed
For the people of Arakan, the rivers of Kaladan, Laymro, Naff, Mayu and many others lie at the heart of everyday life and play a significant part in local history. For the ruling Burmese military regime, however, they are now seen as yet another disposable resource, ideal for exploitation for monetary profit.
In recent years a number of development projects have been planned by Burma’s current rulers, The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to take advantage of Arakan’s waterways.
These include three hydropower projects on the Laymro River, one of which is set to become the biggest in western Burma; and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, which will connect Northeast India with the sea via Arakan and Chin States.
Between them, these projects threaten to destroy Arakan’s largest and most important rivers, as well as the livelihoods of the millions of civilians who live along them. These rivers have been the main sources of food and means of transport for Arakan’s largely rural population for thousands of years.
According to Aung Marm Oo, director of the Arakan Rivers Network (ARN), “Arakanese people rely heavily on rivers for fishing and farming; rivers are crucial arteries for regional trade in fish and agriculture, as well as the transportation of local people, since the state lacks good roads.”
“If developments on the Kaladan and Laymro rivers go forward, local businesses will be severely harmed and hundreds of acres of cultivated land along the rivers will have to be abandoned. Furthermore, the habitats of many self-sustaining ecosystems on which locals depend, including mangrove forests, will be heavily impacted,” he added.
The Kaladan River, Arakan’s largest, runs from Northeast India through Chin State, before culminating at the Arakan capital Site-tway. Daily, thousands of local people use the river, transporting and selling all kinds of produce, while far more catch fish from the river and farm rice from its fertile banks.
However, access to the river has recently become heavily restricted by a mass influx of soldiers into the region, due to a need for heightened security around the project area. There are currently over 30 Navy checkpoints along the river, compared with just 2 or 3 in 2006.
According to Lunn Htein, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Arakan (DPA) and a long-term observer of military activity in the region, “The soldiers demand money from merchants who are going to India to sell things like dried fish and domestic products from Arakan.”
Roads in the area have been used by soldiers in this way for many years, leaving the impoverished locals with no alternative for travel and heavily repressing local businesses.
Similar activity has been noted in the area surrounding the Sai Dun waterfall on the Laymro River, where soldiers have prohibited access to local bamboo forests and other key resources. Bamboo is essential for locals for construction and as a source of food.
The most widespread damage is likely to be caused by the environmental consequences of these projects. Hydropower projects have been criticised countless times in the past for the damage they inflict on the environment and for their other negative social impacts.
Despite their green image, hydropower dams in fact cause severe damage to river ecosystems by blocking migration paths and causing changes in the water’s oxygen and turbidity levels. Furthermore, emissions of methane and carbon dioxide from rotting plants in dam flood areas have been shown in the past to be in fact greater than those from oil or gas power plants.
Additionally, dams block the downstream movement of silt, which forms the base of the riverbanks downstream. Without a constant flow of this nutrient-rich material being deposited along the river, Arakan’s most important farmlands could soon become infertile. This would exacerbate the effects of the current famine in the region, which has been ongoing for almost 3 years, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes forever in search of food.
Similar damage will be done to food supplies in and surrounding the Kaladan River, too. 225 kilometres of the river will be dredged to allow the passage of large shipping vessels; this will devastate the river’s untouched ecosystems and directly damage the habitats of numerous benthic and nektonic species, which are important sources of food for local residents.
The development is also expected to destroy vast areas of mangroves. Mangroves form the foundation of all estuary-based ecosystems, which in Arakan feed millions of people. They provide not only the perfect living conditions for many fish species, but also the main source of food at the bottom of the food-chain which culminates with the million plus people living close to, and dependent upon the river.
Destruction such as this is particularly harmful in Burma, where no development alternative is offered to the people. Without necessary basic infrastructure or adequate food imports, the people affected by these projects will be left with no means of travel, food or survival.
Large dams such as the Laymro Hydropower Dam are one of the leading causes of displacement around the world. Recent figures from International Rivers show that in the past between 40-80 million people have been displaced worldwide by hydropower dams, which at the higher end amounts to more than 1% of the earth’s human population.
According to Aung Marm Oo, “If the hydroelectric dams are built on our rivers, it is highly likely that thousands of people will be forced to drastically adapt their lives without any compensation or assistance from the authorities.”
In Burma alone it is believed that over a million people have been displaced due to hydropower developments, adding to the already drastically high amount of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country.
The SPDC’s recent plans for Arakan’s rivers are yet another reminder to all of Burma’s ethnic states that their resources and cultural heritage are seen by the junta as nothing more than exploitable commodities; this attitude represents an additional hurdle the democratic and reconciliation process.http://www.arakanrivers.net
