Junta officials met locals in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, to seek support for resuming construction of the Myitsone Dam project.
The Myitsone area refers to the region north of Myitkyina City where the Ayeyarwady River originates, and where China is collaborating with the junta to build a massive dam.
Junta-controlled newspapers reported that the junta’s Minister of the President’s Office, U Tin Aung San, and Minister for Electric Power, U Nyan Tun, met with local communities on January 11 to discuss the Myitsone project.
They promoted the Myitsone project as the most cost-effective option for electricity generation and assured that the dam would be built to earthquake-resistant standards. The junta ministers also said the project would benefit Kachin State and the entire country once construction is completed.
Previously, in mid-December 2025, Deputy Junta Chief Vice Senior General Soe Win met with local residents in Myitkyina and promised that the Myitsone Dam would be fully earthquake-resistant.
The junta has even formed a special task force to revive China’s ambitious Myitsone Dam project.
The Myitsone Dam project site is located just about 100 kilometers from the well-known Sagaing fault line. If a major earthquake were to strike along the fault and the dam were to burst, Myitkyina City, situated south of the dam, could be flooded within minutes.
Experts estimate that if the Myitsone Dam were to burst, it could flood an area the size of Singapore and displace tens of thousands of people. Furthermore, if the dam is completed, it could significantly alter the biodiversity of the Ayeyarwady River and disrupt the lives of the communities that depend on it.
Furthermore, the resistance-run National Unity Government (NUG) has warned that the ecological damage caused by the Myitsone Dam project would be irreparable. It said that halting sediment transport could destroy the natural fertility of farmland in the Ayeyarwady Delta, where the river meets the sea, and that altered flow patterns could allow seawater to intrude inland, devastating agricultural land.
The NUG also emphasized that it is committed to working with all its allied forces to ensure that the Ayeyarwady River flows freely and without interruption forever.
On Kachin State Day, celebrated on January 10, residents from Myitkyina, Sinbo, Talawgyi, Waingmaw, and Mogaung gathered along the banks of the Ayeyarwady River to call for the complete abandonment of the Myitsone Dam project.
