MYITKYINA, Kachin State -- Since its suspension five years ago, the $3.6 billion Myitsone hydropower project has come to symbolize the bad old days in Myanmar.
Signed into existence by the military government and the state-owned China Power Investment Corp. in 2006, the project proceeded with little public consultation, and even fewer discussions of its social and environmental costs. All this despite the fact that the 6,000-megawatt dam was expected to displace 10,000 people and flood 766 sq. km of forest -- an area larger than Singapore. The project eventually galvanized such strong opposition that President Thein Sein, in his first year in office, decided to put the project on hold, a move that in hindsight kicked off a period of far-reaching economic and political reform.
