Thai Day
September 14, 1999

‘We feel we have enough information to complete the feasibility study, even though it is not really as complete as we would have wanted’: EGAT halts survey work for a dam on the Salween (Nu) River after the death of an employee in a landmine accident.

[Excerpt] The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has halted its feasibility survey for a dam on the Salween river in Myanmar following the death of an employee in a landmine incident last month. EGAT surveyor Chana Mongplee died on May 9 after losing his leg when he stood on a landmine while working on the feasibility survey for the Hatgyi dam to be built on the river. The hydroelectric dam is part of a joint project by the Thai and Myanmar governments to generate energy for use in Myanmar and for export to Thailand. However, an EGAT official told ThaiDay that its team had been pulled out of restive Karen state following the incident, saying that full-scale surveying was not expected to resume until 2007. “We feel we have enough information to complete the feasibility study, even though it is not really as complete as we would have wanted,” the EGAT official said. “We have to talk with our co-partners, the Burmese authorities, if we are going to find out about what further security measures may need to be taken.”