Bangkok Post
September 4, 2006

The controversial Salween dam projects are likely to go ahead without social and environmental impact studies to avoid interfering in Burma’s internal affairs, a senior official of the Thai utility EGAT says.

The controversial Salween hydropower dam project is likely to go ahead without a social and environmental impact study to avoid interfering in Burma’s internal affairs, a senior official of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) said yesterday. Thailand and Burma plan to build five hydroelectricity dams on the Salween river, which forms part of the Thai-Burmese border. The 1,000-megawatt Hutgyi dam, opposite Mae Hong Son, would be the first one to be built. Under the memorandum of understanding signed between Burma’s Hydroelectric Power Department and Egat last year, construction of the dam is due to start in November next year. Egat recently signed a deal to co-develop the dam with a Chinese firm which had been studying the project’s feasibility and inspecting fault lines along the proposed dam site, said the official. However, the social and environmental impact of the dam on the Burmese side would not be included in the study because they were considered Burma’s internal affairs, he said.