Dawei Special Economic Zone Project
In May 2008, the Burmese and Thai governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build the DSEZ and the building started in 2010, the thinking is that Dawei has the best Gateway in to Asia for ships which means a lot of money for the country, but what about its people? This project will affect about 30 villages holding about 6000 households or a population of about 40 000 people, people who are dependent on their lands since most of them are basically self sufficient and have no education to be able to seek a job. The land confiscation has been carried out without providing any information or even less compromising to all the communities who have been affected, the government have also promised compensation in money for all the land they've taken - but most of the people haven't seen any compensation, and those who have have recieved way too little.
I had never heard about his massive project until I decided to travel to Dawei because Lonely Planet wrote about it, saying that this laid back town is threatened by this project which is to use this place to be a deep sea port (pictures below, Yellow and I drove over here one day so she could show me, she has been here several times with her organization to demonstrate against this project) and become what developers call 'the new gateway of Indo-China' and the industrial zone is touted to be the biggest in South East Asia. Yellow and her family are, together with many others, fighting hard against this project but as it looks like now, the gateway will still be built. The project has only started but has already destroyed so much for the villagers. The organization of the Tavoyan women have visited Thailand 's Map Ta Phut industrial estate (which is where most of the ships head to today, but is what Dawei would take over and worse in the future) and seen firsthand how the dangerous levels of pollution have devastated local farming, fishing and tourism livelihoods and caused high rates of cancer among local communities. They say that they are determined to not let the same thing happen to their home land, Burma!
Maungmagan beach, that might be the future gateway of South east Asia..
I had never heard about his massive project until I decided to travel to Dawei because Lonely Planet wrote about it, saying that this laid back town is threatened by this project which is to use this place to be a deep sea port (pictures below, Yellow and I drove over here one day so she could show me, she has been here several times with her organization to demonstrate against this project) and become what developers call 'the new gateway of Indo-China' and the industrial zone is touted to be the biggest in South East Asia. Yellow and her family are, together with many others, fighting hard against this project but as it looks like now, the gateway will still be built. The project has only started but has already destroyed so much for the villagers. The organization of the Tavoyan women have visited Thailand 's Map Ta Phut industrial estate (which is where most of the ships head to today, but is what Dawei would take over and worse in the future) and seen firsthand how the dangerous levels of pollution have devastated local farming, fishing and tourism livelihoods and caused high rates of cancer among local communities. They say that they are determined to not let the same thing happen to their home land, Burma!
Maungmagan beach, that might be the future gateway of South east Asia..