“First of all, I want to say that there is no cellular service in the villages on the island. At first, the government officials told us that they will build a MPT mobile tower for the islanders to have easier access to communication. When they built the tower, they didn’t build it for the villagers and they built it near the Chinese CNPC office. So, we can't get a signal from the village. We have to go outside the village if we want to make a call. Even so, we still can’t get the signal outside the village. We have to climb up the highest hill [to get the signal]. This is what’s happening here,” U Maung Myint from Kyauktan Village on the Maday Island told Narinjara News.

He said it is very difficult to contact the outside world due to lack of cellular service.

“They said they will work for the development of the local residents but they only worked for the Chinese company. The ministers told us that a tower will be built for our convenience but in reality, the villagers are facing many difficulties with telecommunication,” he said.

He also said rust has been found in the water, which is distributed by the CNPC to the villages, and not even cattle can drink it.

“As far as we known, the CNPC Company is spreading news about distributing drinking water to the residents of Maday Island via the pipeline. In reality, there is rust in the water which is distributed by them so it’s not only contaminated but also has foul odor. Forget about humans, not even cattle drink it,” said U Maung Myint.

Although the village administrator has personally complained to the CNPC over the contaminated water issue, the CNPC officials have disregarded it and failed to carry out any action, he continued.

He claimed that a water purification machine is being used to purify the water before it is distributed to the company but it is not used in the distrbution of water to the villages.

Ma Khine Pyae Sone, a ninth grade student from Kyauktan Village, said the roads built by the CNPC have been completely damaged and young students cannot even travel on the road by bicycle.

“The roads are in bad condition. There are mud puddles on the entire road. We have to go to school on foot. It takes us half an hour [to get there]. We have to attend a high school branch in Pyein. There are 80 students in our village,” she said.

Village elder U Hla Sein also said nothing has been carried out in reality even though the government officials have given several promises to develop the Maday Island, which is home to Chinese projects.

Women from Kyauktan Village said there have not been any significant changes in their lives due to the Chinese company’s project and they are facing more economic difficulty.

“Our lives were the same in the past and they’re the same now. We have to pick vegetables from the forest and sell them. These companies haven’t brought any changes to our lives,” said a woman who sells vegetable.

“The people from our village aren’t rich but we could survive in the past since we planted rice. We didn’t have to worry. Now, we don’t have any farms anymore. All the farms have been confiscated for the Chinese project. We got the compensation for the farms but all the money is gone now because we spent them all as we didn’t have any work to do. We don’t have any farms or jobs. Most of us are facing livelihood difficulties,” said Daw Ma Phyu Chay from Ywarma Village, who works in the fishing industry near the Chinese deep seaport.              

Local residents said only a few local residents from the island have been employed for the Chinese project and the Chinese company only recruited the people who get along with them.