Local villagers and youth in Hsipaw and Kyaukme, northern Shan State, and in Kunhing, southern Shan State, gathered at river banks to hold ceremonies and call for a halt to dam-building on the occasion of the International Day of Action for Rivers across the world.

On March 14, about 200 villagers from Namma village tract in Hsipaw township gathered at the Namma riverbank holding banners with slogans such as “May our river flow freely forever”, “May Shan Rivers flow freely” and “May people in Shan State be free” in Shan and Burmese languages. Villagers also carried out a traditional blessing ceremony and released a raft to symbolize their resistance to damming the Namma, tributary of the Namtu/Myitnge river.

In Kyaukme township,  about 30 young people gathered at the Namtu river bank, holding up a signboard calling for a stop dam building on all Shan State rivers including the Namtu. The Namtu is one the main rivers in northern Shan State, relied on by local farmers for transportation and agriculture. Several of its tributaries have become silted up and shallow due to extensive coal mining.

Despite intensification of conflict between resistance forces and the SAC military regime in townships along the Namtu in recent months, construction of two large hydropower dams on the river has been continuing: the Upper Yeywa dam at Taung Che village, Kyaukme township, and the Namtu dam at Tadae village in Hsipaw township.

In Kunhing, about 100 local people also gathered on the bank of the Salween river to mark the International Day of Action for Rivers.

The peoples of Salween River both in Yunnan province in China, ethnic peoples of the lower Salween that flows through the Shan, Karen and  Mon ethnic states have rejected and successfully resisted all the Chinese and Thailand’s EGATT  dam projects on  the mainstream Salween. Several EAO’s  have pledged to block any dams imposed where there is no consent from the indigenous communities. KNU/KNLA 5th Brigade pledged they will never permit Hatgyi Dam in Karen State to be built.

Karen Rivers Watch also organized a Karen Day of Protest and called for ethnic revolutionary groups to oppose all dam projects in their areas and seek alternative development and energy projects.