Ordered Out: The Costs of Building Burma’s Upper Paunglaung Dam

By Kayan New Generation Youth • May 31, 2011

A group of European and Chinese investors is currently building a dam to power Burma’s military capital which will force 8,000 mostly indigenous people from their homes by October this year. The forced relocation will leave villagers destitute: each household must tear down their home and abandon their farm fields, receiving in return just US$50 in compensation. Security for the dam project has led to increased militarization and abuse of local populations while workers constructing the dam are toiling night and day for a mere US$30 per month.

Dam builders often tout the benefits of dams as a key to a country’s development. In Burma, nearly every day state-controlled media boasts progress on various dam projects as a sign of success. Yet dam projects in Burma lead to an increase in militarization, exacerbate ethnic conflict, and have been linked to forced relocation and forced labor. The Upper Paunglaung Dam is no exception. Therefore the companies involved in the project must be called on to stop this dam.

Download the report in English here.

Click here to read the Kayan New Generation Youth’s statement on the dam project.