WUNRN
http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/womens-livelihoods-undermined-dawei-sez-report.html
Direct Link to Full 25-Page 2014 Report: “Our Lives, Not For Sale”:
http://en.tavoyanvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/OurLives_NotForSaleEng.pdf
Burma – Women Undermined by Dawei Special Economic Zone: Report
Representatives
of the Tavoyan Women’s Union at the launch of “Our Lives, Not For Sale” in
Rangoon on Wednesday. (Photo: Nang Seng Nom / The Irrawaddy)
By YEN SNAING / THE IRRAWADDY - December 24, 2014
|
RANGOON
— The Tavoyan Women’s Union (TWU) called for the immediate cancellation of the
Dawei special Economic Zone (SEZ), in part due to its damaging impact on
Tavoyan women, in a new report launched in Rangoon.
The
group’s report, “Our Lives, Not For Sale,” focuses on the impact of the
multi-billion dollar Dawei SEZ on local women, drawing on interviews conducted
with 60 women from six villages in Yephyu Township, close to where the deep-sea
port is being built.
More
than 10,000 people live in these six villages, according to government figures
recorded at the start of the project. Interviews for the report were conducted
between September 2013 and September 2014.
“Our
main finding from this research is that women’s lives are getting more
difficult due to the project,” Soe Soe Nwe, research coordinator for the
report, told The Irrawaddy.
“The
rate of children dropping out of school is higher [and] more young women have
left for Thailand to work.”
According
to the report, almost all the women interviewed have lost sources of income
since the project began, due to land confiscation, destruction of farmlands and
restricted access to the coast.
Forty-nine
of the 60 women have taken their children out of school since the project
started.
Traditional
livelihoods, such as shellfish collection carried out by women, have been
“drastically affected” by the project. “Just over a third of the women now have
no income at all from their former livelihoods,” the report said.
Speaking
at the report’s launch in Rangoon, Kay Kahing Yu, a villager from Mayingyi in
Yephyu Township, said that the project’s development had led to the destruction
of fields and crops, as well as reduced yields.
“Usually
we grow rice only in the monsoon season, which is enough for us to eat for the
whole year. Since the [Dawei SEZ] project arrived, due to a mine at the
mountain, our paddy fields were destroyed [as water became polluted],” Kay
Kahing Yu said.
“Now,
the yields from our paddy fields are not even enough to eat for six months. …
When we went to talk with the company [Italian-Thai Development], they promised
us compensation, but we still haven’t received it.”
The
report also urged the Thai and Burmese governments, and project developers, to
return confiscated land to landowners and to offer adequate compensation for
damaged or confiscated land.
Yi
Yi Htwe, the secretary of the Dawei Farmers Union, said the price of land in
Dawei skyrocketed within a year of the project’s launch and locals could no
longer afford to buy land in the area.
“Suddenly
we were forced to sell our land,” Yi Yi Htwe said. “Farmers have no money now.
There is no farmland to work on anymore. We can’t even afford a plot of land in
our area now due to higher prices.”