Just when protests against India's 1500 MW Tipaimukh dam are growing louder and stronger in Bangladesh which it fears will rob thousands of fishermen of their livelihood, here comes another unsettling piece of news: India is building a dam in Burma's northwestern Sagaing division which will displace half a million people.
The dam, called 'Tamanthi', is coming up over the Chindwin river.
According to Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) a pro-democracy media outlet, more than 2,400 have already been forcibly relocated since construction began in 2007. The figure, says a DVB report, is set to rise to 45,000, as both governments push ahead with the $US3 billion venture.
The project has outraged locals who have been protesting both within and outside Burma. Recently, a group of them protested outside the Indian parliament building in New Delhi. They also handed a letter to India’s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, as well as the Burmese embassy in the Indian capital.
Following the recent suspension of the huge Myitsone dam in Kachin state, which was backed by China, the anti-dam sentiment in Burma is currently running high. Gauging that sentiment, V S Sheshadri, the Indian ambassador to Burma already wrote a letter to New Delhi in May this year, urging the government to pull out of the project.
According to ambassador Sheshadri, the project was affecting our image and creating wrong images about Indian companies. But well, nothing ever happened and the project is still on.
The question is, why?
The campaigning group Burma Rivers Network has the answer: the Tamanthi dam, which will create a reservoir the size of Delhi, is designed to produce 1,200 MW of electricity – the 20 percent that will remain in Burma. The rest - 80% of the power output - will come to India which the government wants to use in lighting up the North Eastern region. Vastly underdeveloped, the North East is on the radar of the government and it is unlikely to give up on.
But this makes me wonder, if power from Burma is what the government is banking upon, why is it then going ahead with Tipaimukh and the mammoth Lower Subansiri Hydel power project which alone is expected to produce 2000 mega watt of electricity?
Somewhere, the government is hiding facts. Meanwhile, Burma is fuming. As Avong Makury, a local says, "India being the largest democratic country in the world, why is she intentionally overacting it with this beastly junta government?"
Why indeed?
The dam, called 'Tamanthi', is coming up over the Chindwin river.
According to Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) a pro-democracy media outlet, more than 2,400 have already been forcibly relocated since construction began in 2007. The figure, says a DVB report, is set to rise to 45,000, as both governments push ahead with the $US3 billion venture.
The project has outraged locals who have been protesting both within and outside Burma. Recently, a group of them protested outside the Indian parliament building in New Delhi. They also handed a letter to India’s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, as well as the Burmese embassy in the Indian capital.
Following the recent suspension of the huge Myitsone dam in Kachin state, which was backed by China, the anti-dam sentiment in Burma is currently running high. Gauging that sentiment, V S Sheshadri, the Indian ambassador to Burma already wrote a letter to New Delhi in May this year, urging the government to pull out of the project.
According to ambassador Sheshadri, the project was affecting our image and creating wrong images about Indian companies. But well, nothing ever happened and the project is still on.
The question is, why?
The campaigning group Burma Rivers Network has the answer: the Tamanthi dam, which will create a reservoir the size of Delhi, is designed to produce 1,200 MW of electricity – the 20 percent that will remain in Burma. The rest - 80% of the power output - will come to India which the government wants to use in lighting up the North Eastern region. Vastly underdeveloped, the North East is on the radar of the government and it is unlikely to give up on.
But this makes me wonder, if power from Burma is what the government is banking upon, why is it then going ahead with Tipaimukh and the mammoth Lower Subansiri Hydel power project which alone is expected to produce 2000 mega watt of electricity?
Somewhere, the government is hiding facts. Meanwhile, Burma is fuming. As Avong Makury, a local says, "India being the largest democratic country in the world, why is she intentionally overacting it with this beastly junta government?"
Why indeed?
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