With the help of the Burmese ruling junta, two firms of contractors are constructing labour camps for 15,000 Chinese at the controversial Irrawaddy River hydropower project site at Mali and N’Mai Rivers’ Confluence called Myitsone, or Mali-N’Mai Zup in Kachin, said local people. This is the biggest project in Kachin State in northern Burma.
The Myitsone hydropower project site, one of Burma’s tourist attractions is located only 27 miles north of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State. The project is being implemented by the Burma-Asia World Co. Ltd. and Chinese government’s China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) since early 2007.
The two companies’ labour and construction machinery camps are being built at two places near Tang Hpre, a Kachin village on the Mali-N’Mai Rivers’ Confluence while new buildings are being constructed at the place in Irrawaddy River called Lungga Zup in Kachin where Kahpre village is situated, according to residents in the project site.
Local eyewitnesses told KNG today, that the Asia World Co. Ltd. owns five acres of land space in Kahpre village and it has already built new labour camps. The camps are meant for over 15,000 Chinese construction workers and labourers from CPI in China. They will arrive in the camps in October this year, added local sources close to the two firms.
At the moment, over a hundred Chinese inspectors and labourers are working at the project site day and night, a local villager told KNG.
Later, the Chinese construction workers and labourers will stay in the camps until the 10-year Myitsone hydropower plant project is completed in 2017, said sources close to the CPI.
Now, over 50 Kachin villages around Myitsone hydropower project site are increasingly being pressurized to relocate to safer areas for fear of future dam disasters by the Asia World Co. Ltd., said villagers.
According to local villagers who saw the map of the project, the companies plan to construct three large dams near the confluence. They also plan to generate 3,600 MW of electricity from Myitsone hydropower project.
On the other hand, the CPI and Asia World Co. Ltd. are currently constructing a hydropower project in N’Mai River at Chibwe town in east of Kachin State with more men and machines than in Myitsone project. The project will generate 2,000 MW of electricity.
The CPI and Asia World Co. Ltd. agreed to construct seven hydropower plants in Kachin State --- two in Mali or Irrawaddy River and five in N’Mai River where a total of 13,360 MW electricity is to be generated, according to Burma’s state-run paper.
The electricity will be mainly sold to China’s Yunnan province which is badly in need of electricity because China is developing Yunnan as an industrial zone, said local sources close to CPI.
