Over 200 internally displaced Kachin families living in the outskirts of Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, want the government to provide all the households in their village with electricity.

Residents of Ngwi Pyaw San Pya have been asking the state government to hook up power for everyone since the spring of 2018 but till now nothing has been done.

Ngwi Pyaw San Pya headman says they sent the government a household list. “Lamp posts are in place and the gridlines have been installed. But they haven’t told us when they will come and install meter boxes on each of their homes.”

Kachin fleeing from fighting between Burma Army and Kachin Independence Army established Ngwi Pyaw San Pya in 2014. The government hooked up electricity for the original 186 families. Since then, 33 more families have moved to the village, but none of them have power.

Hkawn Nu’s family, who moved to the village after it was built, gets some energy from solar panels, but in the rainy season it’s hard to collect enough power. She wants the government to provide electricity to her family as soon as possible. “It’s hard for our kids to read at night because we don’t have electricity. We keep hearing we’re going to get electricity, but we’re not getting it until today. We just keep waiting for it.”