"Work on Myanmar dam goes on under heavy guard", 7 May 2018

Work on a massive hydropower dam appears to be picking up...amid protests from locals and environmentalists.

Locals say employees of a Chinese state-owned power firm in Shan state have been working under heavy guard at the Mong Ton Hydropower project along the Salween river. The Mong Ton dam is backed by a consortium, including the China Three Gorges Corporation and a subsidiary of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.

...Typically, large dams displace thousands of villagers, still rivers and block the flow of nutrient-rich silt downstream.

Over the past decade since its inception, the project has run up against intense local and international opposition, not least because it threatens to inundate pristine wetlands featuring hundreds of islets, and escalate the conflict between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups active in that area.

...[T]he vicinity is now heavily restricted by security forces.

...[L]ocals in Mong Ton remain wary, given how little information officials have disclosed about their plans for the dam.