Earlier this month, locals protested Zaykabar Company’s proposed embankment-road construction that would cut through nine villages of Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State.
In Ni-Don Village, one of the nine villages affected, the Zaykabar Company confiscated 800 acres of farmland in 2010 on which to construct a cement plant and an embankment-road, and residents have been protesting these projects, said U Nay Myo Wai, the chairman of Peace and Diversity Party.
“When this embankment-road is completed, these villages will be in danger of flood. The village abbot and residents are concerned and requested that we report this case to relevant authorities while they started the protest.”
Zaykabar Company, led by U Khin Shwe, currently plans to upgrade its Kyaikmayaw-Ni Don-Sapaegu embankment road from 10 feet to 15 feet high.
Led by village headman U Khin Aung, about 200 residents from the nine villages, including Ni-Don Village, protested at the base of Ni-Don Mount.
The village abbot reported that residents held posters reading, “We do not protest the cement plant construction, but request that only a three-foot-high road is built to allow water to pass over it.”
In the Kyaikmayaw region, month-long floods normally occur in the Burmese calendar months of War-So, War-Khaung and Taw-ta-lin, or July, August, and September.
Residents allege that they reported the negative consequences of the cement plant construction to President Thein Sein several times.
