The Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay gas pipeline burst again last week, just a few miles from the site of a blast that occurred less than a month ago. Fortunately, the thunderous rush of gas did not ignite.
On March 8th, a section of the 20 inch pipeline burse in between Lamine Sub-township and Kawdood village, Lamine Township.
“I heard sound like thunder for about two hours,” a woman from Lamine told IMNA. “After that the sound became silent, the authorities could come to repair it and guard pipeline near it. [Explosions] happens habitually. Sometimes it happens just as a leak without making any sound.”
The accident occurred at the joint connecting two sections of the pipeline, said residents. Similar accidents are not uncommon, and a similar blast occurred on February 19th a few miles away near Hnitkayin village.
“The explosion came again after it had already happened not even a full month ago,” added the woman from Lamine. “Villagers around Lamine town didn’t know where they should run because of their fear when they heard the sound coming from the pipeline.
“But we are not so afraid of it because we hear leaks like that regularly,” she added. IMNA sources after the February blast also reported that for months before the accident they had seen been able to see gas escaping from the pipeline around submerged sections.
A villager from southern Mudon Township, meanwhile, said that he sees Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) employees frequently making repairs.
The Kanbauk to Myaing Kalay pipeline transports gas from the Yadana gas fields off the coast of Tenasserim Divison to cement factories in Karen State and electricity generation projects farther north. Explosions and leaks have been frequent, with rebel “terrorists” blamed for larger accidents.
Residents of villages along the pipeline are required to work as unpaid laborers maintaining the pipeline as well standing sentry or paying security taxes.
“Now it is nearly three years since we began paying the money twice per monthly to guard the pipeline,” said a resident near Kwan Hlar village, in Mudon Township. A major pipeline blast occurred near Kwan Hlar in 2006, which Burmese government authorities blamed on armed rebels. “Every house paid 1,500 kyat per one time and 3,000 kyat per month. We have to guard ourselves if we don’t pay the money. Villagers pay money because they don’t want to guard.”
