"Myanmar junta pushes to restart Myitsone Dam project", 13 August 2026

Since June, Myanmar’s military government has increased its efforts to restart a massive, controversial hydropower project backed by China that has remained suspended for 15 years.

The Myitsone Dam project, launched in 2009 and estimated to cost $3.6 billion then, was to be built along the Mali River, the N’mai River, and their confluence at Myitsone, where the Ayeyarwady River begins. Planned in Kachin state in an earthquake-prone area in northern Myanmar, the project is owned by Upstream Ayeyarwady Confluence Basin Hydropower Company, which is jointly owned by China’s Power Investment Corporation, Myanmar’s Ministry of Electric Power and Asia World Company…

In 2011, then-President Thein Sein suspended the project after widespread public opposition due to its environmental and social impacts…

The chief minister of Kachin state, Khet Htein Nan, also promoted the project during a public meeting in the state on June 23, offering incentives about electricity and adding that the dam will be built to withstand earthquakes and there will be no need to worry about flooding. He further said that if construction begins this year, the project could be completed within 8.5 years…

The head of the junta’s Myitsone Project Implementation Committee said on his social media account that between January and the end of July 2026, authorities had held 38 meetings with local communities regarding the project.

Jacob, a spokesperson for the Kachin Human Rights Watch who uses only one name, told … that these meetings do not reflect the genuine will of the people, but instead are intended to coerce public endorsement, constituting a violation of citizens’ basic rights…

Kenneth Ray Olson, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, U.S., who has researched the Irrawady River Delta, told … that the construction of Myitsone dams could reduce the amount of water flowing downstream during floods and stop nutrient-rich mud and sand from reaching the delta, affecting farming and the health of the river…