Proposal seeks to allocate 450 acres of land for relocated Thandwe Twsp villagers

By DMG 17 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
17 February 2022, Thandwe

The Forest Department has reportedly submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation to allocate 450 acres of land to people who have been relocated to make way for a hydropower project in Thandwe Township, Arakan State.

The Thahtay Chaung hydropower project, which is still under construction, has required significant displacement of the residents of two villages in the project area.

The new site for Yay Kauk and Payit villages, which have a combined total of 461 households, is located on a mountain along the Thandwe-Taungup road, about 25 miles from the town of Thandwe. A total of 308 houses in Yay Kauk village and 153 houses in Payit village were relocated starting in April of last year.

The relocated residents had asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation to set aside 450 acres of forest land near the relocation site for farming, said U Kyaw Aye, assistant director of the Thahtay Chaung hydropower project.

“We have already paid the compensation to all the locals. However, more than 400 acres of land near the new relocation site have been submitted to the ministry for approval so that locals can cultivate it. We have not received a notification letter yet,” he added.

For more than a year, residents have been gradually moving to the new village. But Ko Win Zaw, a resident of Yay Kauk village, said the government needed to provide jobs and land because locals did not have land to work on at the relocation site

“We have been moving to the new village for over a year, but there are no jobs for us,” he told DMG. “We have no farmland and the government has not given us land yet. It is not convenient for us to spend the compensation we have received. Therefore, I want the government to give us land to work on, as requested by the locals.”

Up to 90% of the promised compensation has been paid to the relocated villagers, but some have not yet received compensation due to difficulties withdrawing money from Myanmar’s banks, according to locals.

The Thahtay Chaung hydropower project is nearly 70% complete and is expected to be finished in the fiscal year 2025-26, according to project officials.