Many acres of paddy farms in a number of villages that include Pyatae, Kapthapyay and Semaw in Kyaukpru Township are said to have been damaged because of the undisciplined dumping of waste by the foreign companies.

U San Tha Kyaw, a farmer from Pyatae Village, told Narinjara that about 200 acres of paddy fields are damaged by the waste that are being excreted from the factory and worker station of the Indian Punj Lloyd Company that are based near the village.

“There are 600 acres of paddy farms around the factory and worker station of the Indian Punj Lloyd. About 200 acres of the farms are now totally uncultivable because they are already damaged by the waste thrown away by the factory and workers of the company and by the mud flowing down from those sites”, said U San Tha Kyaw.

The farmers who are working at their farms located near the factory could not work due to the bad smell coming form the trash and excrement discarded of the factory.

The villagers who own the farms are said to have complained of the damages of their farms to the township administrator, but the administrator is said to have threatened the villagers for making their complaint without taking any action against the company to stop undisciplined dumping of waste onto their farms.

According to local farmers, they have already suffered great losses since their farmlands were forcibly confiscated for the foreign companies that are arriving in Kyaukpru Township for their investment and now again the construction of factories, oil and gas pipelines and roads by those companies have caused great damage to the remaining farmlands in the township.

The local people are now defenseless and have to tolerate all kinds of abuse being perpetrated by the foreign companies because the projects being implemented by the foreign companies in Kyaukpru are state-shared businesses and the local authorities have no power to rule over those companies, said a local social activist.