|
SALWEEN WATCH HOTMAIL OUT
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE SALWEEN MEGADAM
Salween Watch
24th February 1999 Vol.1
---------------------------------------
SOME DAM INTEREST GROUP CRITERIA:
Thailand's Perceived Needs;
- Water for industry, for flushing the polluted Chaophraya River, for
city use, and possibly for sale to those plantations and farmers who
can afford to pay for it (Note: Water from the hugely expensive Salween
would be too expensive for most farm use, especially if it is pumped
up from the Salween....)
- Relatively low cost electric power (Note: Thai authorities evidently
still think they need more electricity, despite their current huge oversupply,
their reneging on a purchase deal of hydropower from Laos and their
recently stated interest in selling their excess power production to
Vietnam and Burma)
- Construction contracts for Thai companies, with the associated signing
bonuses and outright bribery and corruption
- Preferably, for the dam to be in an area they can at least partly
control
- For the environmental and social impacts to be in another country
- To use the dam issue as a means of placating the Burmese military
and as a way to persuade them to cooperate more
- To avoid and as much as possible break the Thai anti-dam movement
The Burmese SPDC's Needs
- To control and dominate the ethnic and opposition groups
- To urgently supply electricity for Burma's cities and elsewhere
- To get money, as much and as quickly as possible
- To control the power supply to Thailand and gain other power over
Thais
- To spend as little money as possible
- To be able to securely protect the power lines, roads and other infrastructure
- To have some amount of instability in the Shan State to justify the
existence of it's overlarge standing army while providing an excuse
for the country's massive drug production
Other Interest Groups, Especially Financiers, Consultants, Construction
Companies, the ADB, UN, and other Governments
- To show some progress in the so-called drug war / reduction of drugs
- To provide energy for foreign industry
- To show that dams are still aviable form of energy
- To get their money back - or to use the debt / obligation to gain
extra influence
- To get big contracts for construction, for consultancy work, and for
the supply of equipment for dam making
- To invest in projects that will keep them employed and well paid,
and for some companies, to be reasonably profitable over the long term
- For countries to spend their ODA on projects that benefit their national
industries
<<<<<<<<<Top - -Back>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> |
|
