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Poorly regulated gold mining has turned a life-giving river in Mon State right into a poisonous death-trap, enriching armed teams whereas devastating native communities.
By FRONTIER
From the highest of Melan Mountain, you possibly can see the Bilin River twist its method from Kayin State within the north to the Gulf of Martaban off the Mon State coast.
As its identify suggests, life in Mon’s Bilin Township – about 100 kilometres north of the state capital Mawlamyine – has lengthy relied on this river. However now, says resident and U Sein Win, “that river is simply a shell of its former self.”
Years of poorly regulated gold mining have confirmed deeply profitable for armed teams working alongside the river, together with the Tatmadaw-aligned Kayin State Border Guard Pressure and the Karen Nationwide Union, which has fought with the army since 1949. But it surely’s been devastating for everybody else. The Bilin right now is stuffed with arsenic and different heavy metals which are killing crops, cattle and native villagers alike.
“The river is not drinkable and might’t even be used safely on crops,” Sein Win stated.
He deserted his farm in 2011, after watching water introduced from the river poison and destroy his rice crop. Now he sells souvenirs on the entrance to the mountain-top Kyaikhtisaung pagoda, which pilgrims typically go to for its centuries-old laterite building.
“With out the river, we must depend on rain [for our crops]. However we may by no means make a residing that method,” he stated. “That river has been slowly dying due to egocentric businessmen who solely look out for their very own pursuits.”
Whereas the issue is long-running, authorities officers earlier than the 2021 coup have been at the very least working in direction of restoration and accountability, even when that course of was painfully gradual. On Might 19, 2020, the Mon State authorities led by the Nationwide League for Democracy advised residents to not drink water from the Bilin. Later that yr a committee investigated contaminants within the river and issued a report back to the state parliament urging motion.
However for the reason that army overthrew the NLD in February 2021, efforts to enhance public and environmental well being have vanished.
Dr Min Kyi Win, who served as Mon’s environmental minister till the coup, stated the investigative committee in 2020 discovered dangerously low PH ranges, indicating extremely acidic water. That is frequent close to mining websites and signifies excessive concentrations of heavy metals identified to trigger deadly sicknesses.
He stated that prime ranges of arsenic particularly had induced many individuals consuming the water over an prolonged time period to develop squamous cell carcinoma, prostate most cancers and lung most cancers, amongst different illnesses. He added that power diarrhoea has additionally turn into frequent.
Min Kyi Win couldn’t present particular numbers on PH or arsenic ranges, or different particulars from the committee’s report, which he stated stays within the state parliament constructing.
“I used to be arrested after the coup and haven’t gone again to these places of work since I used to be launched,” Min Kyi Win stated. “That info is within the Mon State authorities places of work, and we’re not the folks accountable for these places of work anymore.”
A consultant of the junta-appointed Mon State Administration Council advised Frontier their workplace had no data from any such investigation.
Who’s guilty?
Earlier than the coup, solely two firms – Tun Hein Hlyan and Myanmar Shwe Pyi Hein Firm – have been legally licensed to mine for gold in Mon, in keeping with state authorities data.
It’s unclear who owns the previous firm, however the latter is owned by U Tin Win and Daw Ohn Myint, residents of close by Kyaikto Township who’re identified by locals for his or her wealth and cosy relationship with the army.
However in addition to these two registered companies, different firms are mining alongside the Bilin and its tributaries with out state or Union-level authorisation, in keeping with native sources. Most have allegedly discovered methods to funnel their income again to their BGF and KNU companions whereas avoiding paying any taxes to the state or compensating native communities. The most important amongst them, Chit Linn Myaing, is a conglomerate linked to the BGF. Upriver in the meantime in Kayin’s Hpapun Township, which is essentially managed by the KNU’s Brigade 5, residents say firms deal solely with the KNU for licenses and taxation.
Ex gold miner Ko Min Min’s* village of Asu Chaung in Bilin Township is close to the biggest of Mon’s riverside mines. He advised Frontier the mine was once run by the Ye Tun Firm, whose director U Ye Tun appears to play each side. BGF sources advised Frontier he’s an in depth enterprise accomplice of their chief Noticed Chit Thu, whereas KNU sources stated he was authorised by their group to mine for gold in Hpapun Township in 2010.
Min Min stated the big mine close to his village handed from Ye Tun to Myanmar Shwe Pyi Hein in 2015 after which to the BGF-linked Chit Linn Myaing in 2021. “I do know these firm names as a result of I used to work for them,” he stated.
When Min Min labored on the mine in 2015, he earned K5,500 to sift silt and separate gold from 8am-6pm every day. As in different mines, mercury and cyanide have been used to separate gold from different sediments, though these are extremely poisonous substances for each people and ecosystems.
“I may solely work for a couple of months due to the injury to my well being from being involved with chemical substances all day,” Min Min stated. He described completely broken lungs and blood-swollen genitals amongst his signs.
If folks do get sick, he stated, “it’s very tough for us to go all the best way to Bilin [town] to go to the hospital.”
He stated some folks in his village nonetheless go to work for these firms after they promote for part-time staff, however that that is beginning to change as consciousness of the risks improve.
A neighborhood Chit Linn Myaing worker, who refused to present his identify for safety causes, stated that whereas the corporate has been licensed in Kayin for a few years, it’s working downriver in Mon with out state approval.
As a authorized workaround, the worker stated, the businesses encourage people and small teams of individuals to mine independently. If the outfit is sufficiently small, taxes and authorisation necessities are waived, even when it makes use of poisonous chemical substances. The businesses then agree to purchase all of the gold these small miners discover however at a reduced value. Mixed with the avoidance of tax, this makes the operation a particularly low-cost funding.
“The corporate has had a mining licence in Kayin State for a very long time, and people working for them on the Mon aspect are doing so with a tacit understanding that that is the way it’s performed,” the Chit Linn Myaing worker stated.
Representatives from the corporate refused to reply questions from Frontier.
The injury performed
In 2009, the Mya Htay Kwal and Chit Linn Myaing firms excavated two giant mines in Hpapun with out authorisation from the KNU however underneath the sworn safety of the BGF.
Battle broke out when the KNU objected, and in 2010 it authorised Ye Tun and the Kocho Firm to mine there as an alternative. Though combating typically hampered operations and squeezed income, the mining largely continued in a single kind or one other.
“Ye Tun continues to be there, however Kocho stopped in 2018,” a former resident advised Frontier, asking to not be named. “Now there are numerous small operators, and so they should pay taxes to the KNU.”
The resident stated he himself was as soon as all in favour of mining for gold within the space, however when he inquired, a KNU official advised him he’d be taxed K20 million (US$6,000 on the market fee) per 30 days for a big mine and K5 million per 30 days for a small one.
“These gold mines alone create all of the revenue the KNU may wish,” he stated.
However downstream, communities endure, and so they may discover little redress even earlier than the coup.
Min Min stated villagers lodged complaints and requests with authorities officers in 2015, 2017 and 2019, and acquired “completely no assist.”
Again then, when the river would flood, the poisoned water would destroy farms and make villagers and cattle sick, he stated.
“As soon as, I feel in 2012, the water stage rose and entered our village wells, and practically your complete village had diarrhoea — actually, actually unhealthy diarrhoea.”
“Beforehand, nobody believed they may die from river water. Now we’re conscious of those new illnesses,” he stated. “Cancers that have been beforehand remarkable right here have begun popping up – my neighbour died final yr of prostate most cancers.”
“Now we deal with the river like poison, avoiding it utterly.”
*signifies the usage of a pseudonym for safety causes
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