During the discussion held at Taunggyi City Hotel, the Myanmar People Alliance talked about the sufferings of local farmers caused by Upper Ye-ywar hydropower utility tower project in Nawnghkio Township in the northern Shan State and the construction of the road leading to Goke-twin Bridge on Mandalay-Muse Asean Highway.

“The major plights [of the farmers] can be divided into two sections. The first section is concerned with Upper Ye-ywar hydropower [utility] towers. There are 270 [utility] towers from Upper Ye-ywar hydropower plant to Shwe Sar Yan sub-station. When we observed 14 villages in Nawnghkio Township, we found 38 towers. One loses 0.33 acres of land to install a tower. As for the second section, the Mandalay-Muse Asean Highway is 453 kilometers long. The project to build a road leading to Goke-twin Bridge is included on this highway. A total of 224 farmers have suffered. They lost 434 acres of land. They still haven’t received compensations up to now,” said Ko Moe from Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State).

Shan State Hluttaw Affairs Committee’s chairs, secretaries, and local farmers from Nawnghkio took part in the discussion on February 6.

“This is a union-level project, but we don’t clearly know whether this project is managed by the union government, a ministry, or a company. The union government has failed to show transparency for this project,” Ko Moe added.

The project was initiated in 2015 during U Thein Sein’s term and the utility installation company dug up the lands using machines without seeking permission and negotiating with the farmers. After the civilian government took office in 2016, the farmers’ complaints have been submitted to the Shan State government. However, the farmers still have not received any compensation for having the utility towers installed on their lands and the company has not met with them to resolve the issue.