A farmer from Kappathwe Village in the township said they were paid 3 lakh kyat each as compensation regardless of the amount of farmland they had confiscated for the corridors of the pipelines.

"Some farmers lost a lot of their land, while others lost very little to the pipeline, but all farmers were equally paid 3 lakh kyat as compensation and most of them are now dissatisfied with the compensation," said the farmer.

Another farmer from Pyatae Village in the township said they are distressed by the loss of their farmland despite the compensation.

"We are very upset over losing our farmland because the farmland is everything for us and very important for earning out livelihoods here, but we are paid just 3 lakh kyat, which will not be enough to run our family for a month, as compensation. We do not need money, we need our land back. Without land, it is very difficult for us to earn for our lives and we are now being distressed thinking about our future," said the farmer.

According to the farmers, the gas pipeline is now being constructed from Malar Island to Madae Island, crossing through many farmlands in the villages of Prunrhay, Mintattaung, Kamgree, Pyatae, Kappathwe, and Kalarbartaung in Kyaukpru Township.

They said bulldozing the farmlands for the pipeline’s corridor has caused additional damage to the nearby farmlands as well.

A government administrator from the area who wished to be unnamed told Narinjara that 3 lakh kyat is paid to each farmer whose lands were lost to the pipeline as advance compensation and the full amount of compensation per acre of land will be also paid to them.

U Thandar Maung, a spokesperson of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party in Kyaukpru, said the government should ensure not to ruin the lives of the farmers who are living in extreme poverty after confiscating their arable lands for the pipeline.

“The people in those rural villages are very poor farmers, most of whom are living in hut-like houses and are too poor to send their children to the school. It is really suffocating to think about how they will survive without farmlands that are the only life-giving source for them. The government should ensure not to ruin their livelihoods by paying sufficient compensation for their lost land and creating alternative job opportunities for sustaining their lives”, said U Thandar Maung.

The local residents said they have been suffering from rights abuses such as forcible land confiscations and house relocations as well as from social instabilities and environmental damages, far from being benefitted, since the Burmese regime began cooperating with the international companies that have started gas and oil projects in Arakan State.