A study of hydroelectric infrastructural violence in Salween River basin and its impacts on environmental justice for ethnic minorities

Abstract

Salween River basin in Myanmar is a biodiversity and resource rich area, which is mostly inhabited by the ethnic minorities of Myanmar; Shan, Karenni, Karen and Mon. The river is the lifeblood of these ethnic groups and is tied to their sovereignty and cultural values. However, a series of Hydropower dams are planned across Salween River basin with 7 dams proposed on the mainstream river by the country’s ruling government. Myanmar was governed by the military government since independence and until the democratic transition in 2011. During this time, there were several decades-long conflicts between ethnic armed groups and Tatmadaw (Myanmar military). When Lawpita (in 1960s) and Kengtwang hydropower (in 2005) projects were developed, a series of environmental impacts and social impacts occurred. In addition, since 1996, Tatmadaw has launched anti-insurgent offensives in ethnic minorities regions, which are also the frontier regions for development projects. Most of the areas were depopulated already when the seven dam projects on mainstream Salween were contracted in early 2000s. This study explores the environmental and social impacts produced across the various stages of hydropower development using an infrastructural violence lens to consider how different forms and acts of violence compromise the environmental justice of ethnic minorities in Salween River basin. The study applied a qualitative methodology using secondary data from publicly available reports about Salween dams produced by NGOs and INGOs. A case study approach was used to analyse two operating dams and seven proposed dams. The study used Galtung’s (1969) theory of violence to identify violent acts and events, and applied an infrastructural violence framework developed by Rodgers and O’Neill (2012) to analyses types of violence generated from the Salween dams. Finally, the study used environmental justice frameworks to explore the relationships between hydroelectric infrastructural violence and environmental justice in Salween River Basin. The findings show that there are various forms of direct violence, structural violence and slow violence intersecting with each other throughout hydroelectric infrastructure projects. Such violence impacts on achieving environmental justice for marginalized populations, which in turn leads to violent actions in response to these injustices.