By NE NOW NEWS
Guwahati: Forty-nine civil society organisations and residents of Kachin state in northwestern Myanmar on Tuesday jointly opposed renewed efforts by Myanmar’s military regime to restart the China-backed Myitsone Dam project, calling for its permanent cancellation.
In a joint statement, the groups criticised the junta’s December 2025 order threatening legal action against those opposing the project. They accused China’s state-owned company SPIC-YN and successive authoritarian governments in Myanmar of attempting to push the project forward in the name of development while disregarding public opposition.
The groups warned that the proposed 139.5-metre-high dam would inundate an area comparable in size to Singapore, causing extensive environmental damage, destroying biodiversity and permanently displacing thousands of people.
According to the statement, more than 12,000 people have already been uprooted from their ancestral lands and deprived of their livelihoods due to the project.
The signatories also argued that reviving the project amid Myanmar’s ongoing civil war would further intensify tensions in the region.
“No government has the right to impose projects without genuine community consent,” the statement said, while reiterating demands for the project to be scrapped permanently.
The Myitsone Dam project, located at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers in Kachin state, has remained one of Myanmar’s most controversial infrastructure projects for over a decade due to environmental, social and political concerns.