Locals protested on 12th November when the daughter of the ex prime minister General Soe Win, Daw Theint Theint Win, started having an area of the beach prepared for construction work at Ngapali Township in Thandwe District, Arakan State.
Daw Theint Theint Win has plans to construct a building on the beach at Zee-Phyu-Gone ward in Ngapali Township. No details have been released about what sort of building is being constructed and what it will be used for Ko Sein Chit from Thandwe District Social Network told Narinjara News.
He said: “This morning, the 12th November, we saw that construction workers were excavating soil from the beach. Where they are excavating is publicly owned land, so about 20 of us local residents went to protest and get them to stop.”
He said they were protesting because constructing on publicly owned areas of the beach will destroy Ngapali’s world-famous beauty and the environment will also be affected.
Protesters said that not only are the construction workers building on the beach, but that they are also planning to block a creek that flows into the sea.
Ko Sein Chit said: “We object because of how the consequences of this construction could affect people.
“It isn’t only beach land, they are also building in the creek. If they totally block the creek the waterway from the town will not be able to flow into the sea which will cause problems for the residents.”
As a result of the protests construction work has stopped, but opponents said they would continue to keep watch on the site to see what happens.
Previously, Ngapali was a sub-township, but at the beginning of 2013 the government promoted the area to township level. This means that the area has to have a certain amount of infrastructure such as a hospital, schools, a police station and government offices.
The beach and the township level infrastructure have meant that business people are targeting the area. So far, local people have not benefitted much from increasing development.
The main reason they are not benefitting is due to unfair land and building confiscations that took place under the previous military government, which the current government have been unable to reverse, said local residents.
Ko Ne Tun Aung from Ngapali said: “There was a lot of publicly owned land on Ngapali beach, but almost all of it has already gone.”
Narinjara tried to ask Daw Theint Theint Soe for a comment but were unable to contact her.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
