“down from their Himalayan and Tibetan sources to the Bay of Bengal. Neither has been dammed and the Salween is the longest pristine river system in the world, with a diversity of plant and animal life that has only begun to be explored. It won’t last much longer. Over the past few years China’s state-owned enterprises have negotiated agreements with the Burmese junta to build a giant $9 billion 7.1 gigawatt hydropower station across the Salween. Another project, already under way, will dam the Irrawaddy just north of Myitkyina. Ten thousand or so Chinese workers have arrived to carry out the construction, living in their own camp, in rows of little wooden houses. Other projects aim to dam the Salween further downstream. Altogether, if realized, these will provide more than 20 gigawatts of electricity. To put this into perspective, Burma today consumes less than a tenth that amount; 20 gigawatts is about what is consumed by all of Thailand. Some of the new electricity will stay in Burma, but the vast majority will be exported to China. A dam financed by the World Bank is required to do an extensive environmental impact study, but the World Bank is[…]” Excerpt From: Thant Myint-U. “Where China Meets India.” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. iBooks. This material may be protected by copyright.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:21:57 +0000
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