APPEAL TO STOP CONSTRUCTION OF IRRAWADDY/MYITSONE DAM
IN KACHIN STATE, MYANMAR
January 17, 2010
Premier Wen Jiabao,
Office of the Prime Minister, State Council
Ximen Fuyou Street, Zhongnanhai West Gate,
Xicheng District, Beijing
People’s Republic of China
Postcode 100017
Dear Premier Wen Jiabao,
We, the Overseas Kachin Community, are writing to appeal to your Excellency to help advise the China Power Investment Corporation to strongly reconsider the pending construction of the Myitsone dam to be located in the Kachin State of Myanmar.
We seek your help to encourage the China Power Investment Corporation to realize the goals of promoting a conservation culture – ecological civilization [生态文明建设] in China and her humble adjacent neighbors, in this case, the Kachin State of Myanmar, as read out by President Hu Jintao in 2009 during the Meeting Marking the 30th Anniversary of Reform and Opening Up of China. We strongly applaud the environmental sensitivity beyond borders
initiative put forth by China in this speech.
The China Power Investment Corporation is building a 50-storey high dam at our Irrawaddy River in Myanmar in order to provide electricity for China. While this will increase the availability of energy supply and therefore promote the possibility of enhanced monetary economic opportunities, it will seriously wash away the bases of life for millions of people and for generations, too, in the Kachin State, for the following reasons:
1. This dam will flood and destroy the confluence of the Mali and N’mai rivers, one of the most significant ecological and cultural heritage sites for the Kachin people and animportant landmark for all of Myanmar.
2. Millions of people will be negatively affected downstream and 15,000 will be immediately displaced upstream. People will lose their homes, lands, and naturalresource base.
3. The Myitsone dam site is less than 100 km from the earthquake prone Sagaing fault line. In the case of an earthquake, resulting dam breakage or unnatural flood surges would be disastrous to millions of people living along the Irrawaddy, especially the people living in Myitkyina, the capital city of Kachin State.
Our people in Kachin State have already publicly stated their objections about the dam to the Myanmar government but these objections have been, unfortunately, ignored. Now we, the people of Kachin State and Myanmar, appeal to you to help prevent this potential man-made catastrophe from taking shape.
Sincerely,
The Overseas Kachin Community