Burmese government says no to new dams

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Burmese government says no to new dams



NAYPYITAW: -- The current Burmese government will not build any new irrigation dams and spending on existing facilities will be halved, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Tun Win said in Naypyidaw on Wednesday.

The Irrawaddy News Online on Wednesday reported that the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation had questioned the benefits rendered by the existing irrigation dams, numbering over 100, to agricultural production and farmer’s welfare.

It also planned to dismantle about 200 river water pumping stations.

“A large sum of money has been spent on building (irrigation) dams since 1988, but a look at whether they have really benefitted farmers or whether paddy yields have increased, reveals that the cultivation of rice paddy through irrigation, as before, still makes up only 10 percent of total cultivation,” said the deputy minister, adding that the remaining 90 percent has to depend on unpredicatable rainfalls.

He pointed out that rice exports to China which reached 1.5 million tonnes in 1992 when there were not so many dams in the country, stood at almost the same amount in 2015.

The government has decided to halve maintenance spending for dams from 24 billion kyats (US$20.3 million) for the 2016-17 fiscal year because only two million acres of irrigated farmland are in use while the rain-fed paddy acreage is as high as 15 million acres.

Tun Win said that water was stored in dams for hot season use and for official visits although farmers needed the water for paddy during rainy season. He said that farmers dare not ask for water during the rainy season even though droughts sometimes occur that time.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/burmese-government-says-no-new-dams/


-- Thai PBS 2016-07-14