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Activists Believe Thailand Continues Involvement With Salween Dam Projects
A report that Thailand is not looking to Burma for energy needs is receiving skeptical reactions from Salween Watch activists, who assert that companies from Thailand have already signed agreements with Burma for the joint development of a 7,110 MW dam at Tasang, which carries grave implications for peoples of Shan State.
Activists Believe Thailand Continues Involvement With Salween Dam Projects
Reported by Christa M. Thorpe
No.11 - 6/2007
22 June 2007
Environment
A report that Thailand is not looking to Burma for energy needs is receiving skeptical reactions from Salween Watch activists, who assert that companies from Thailand have already signed agreements with Burma for the joint development of a 7,110 MW dam at Tasang, which carries grave implications for peoples of Shan State.
Piyasvasti Amranand
Thai Energy Minister Piyasvasti Amranand stated recently that the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has not signed contracts with Burma, and that Thailand’s present government is instead looking to neighboring Laos for power supply needs, according to Malaysian National News Agency Bernama.
A report published by Shan Sapawa Environmental Organization lists two official agreements, a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by MDX groups from Thailand with Burma’s Ministry of Energy (20 Dec 2002), and a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between MDX and the Burmese Department of Hydroelectric Power, with signing witnessed by EGAT (3 April 2006). 
Image: Salween Watch
The amiable business relations between Burma and the previous Thai government under Thaksin Shinawatra were strongly criticized by various human rights groups, who remain unconvinced that Thailand will now drop the incentives for hydro-electricity purchases from Burma.
The Tasang dam, whose site is only about 140 km North of the Chiang Mai border is to be 228 meters high (the tallest in Southeast Asia), flooding 870 square kilometers of fertile forest and farmland, will cost at least US$6 billion to construct, and is projected to produce 7,110 MW most of which is planned to be sold to Thailand.
Activists warn that Thailand’s continuing involvement in the projects on the Salween River contributes to the appalling human rights abuses and forced relocation of hill tribe people in Shan State.
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