Thailand goes against the flow in Myanmar

By agreeing to help build a large dam in military-ruled Myanmar, Thailand’s state-run power utility has laid the groundwork for a potential water war in an area already troubled by ethnic conflict and human-rights abuses.

The Hat Gyi hydroelectricity dam will be built in five to six years, Kraisi Kanasuta, president of the EGAT Plc, said this month, with hardly a hint of the many problems that may lie ahead.

The planned dam will be the first of five that EGAT and the Yangon junta hope to build across the Salween River, and it is

expected to generate 1,200 megawatts of power.

But even before the ink dries on the memorandum of understanding that EGAT signed with the State Peace a Development Council (SPDC), as Myanmar’s military regime is officially known, environmentalists and human-rights groups have fired a salvo of questions.

Asia Times