The inaugural ceremony of the new Stillwell Road to the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam construction site was celebrated with gusto by the Burmese military junta, the China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) and the Asia World Company. The regime has totally ignored warnings of an ecological disaster by environmentalists, once the dam is built.

Ignoring the outcry and the persistent protests by local people and environmentalists, the regime and the project construction companies are continuing to build the billion dollar hydropower project in Kachin State, Northern Burma. On December 21, they forced residents of 28 quarters from Myitkyina to attend the inaugural ceremony of the newly constructed road leading to the dam construction site and the housing complexes for the relocated people.

“Villagers could not refuse the diktat of the junta,” said Ah Nan the spokesperson of the Kachin Development Networking Group [KDNG].

She told Kachin News Group, there are about 60 villages around the Irrawaddy Myitsone dam construction site located over 20 miles from Myitkyina the capital of Kachin State and all the villagers have to shift to the new places without a murmur.

The KDNG said at least six villages have been relocated already to the new places, which lack facilities such as farm land, water, health and education.

“The houses provided are so flimsy that last week several were knocked down by strong winds,” said a KDNG statement.

The massive Myitsone dam construction project at an estimated cost of US$ 3.6 billion according to the Burma River Network (BRN) is directly impacting locals where 15,000 people are being displaced. Should the dam collapse, given it is close to an earthquake prone zone, a million people living downstream will be swamped by floods, said KDNG.

“Villagers are not only losing their home and hearth and their treasured cultural landmark, now they are being forced to watch as the army and investors celebrate” said Ah Nan. “This is just the beginning of what is in store for communities all along the river.”

The junta also celebrated the inaugural ceremony for the Chibwe Dam with an installed capacity of 3,400 MW, which is part of the seven dams planned in Kachin State by the junta and CPI on the Irrawaddy and Mali, N’mai rivers.

The project began in 2007 after an agreement was reached between junta and the CPI.

The junta will sell the electricity generated to China and rake in approximately US$ 588-597 million a year from the Irrawaddy Myitsone Dam project, which will produce 16,634 million kilowatt hr (KWH) according to a report by the Burma River Network (BRN).