Kyaikmayaw Township Villagers Campaigning Against Coal-fired Power Plants

Human Rights Foundation of Monland | August 2, 2016

On 18 July 2016, a campaign, organized by Pyar Taung Regional Development Association and local youths, posted and distributed stickers to raise awareness about coal-fired power plantations. The stickers were dispatched around 7 villages: Kaw Pa Naw, Kaw Don, Kwan Ngan, Ka Don Si, Nidon, Me Ka Ro and Pauk Taw villages in Kyaikmayaw Township, Mon State.

Nai Shwe Win, from Me Ka Ro village,who is also a member of Pyar Taung Regional Development Association, stated “Our purpose for this campaign is to let the company know that we keep protesting against coal-fired power plants and we will always take action to oppose it.”

The aim of this campaign is to send a message to the company and the government that local villagers are not naive and will keep taking action by different types of protests and campaigns. Youths are distributing stickers and films in both Thai and Burmese language. The benefit of distributing these is for people to simply understand the impacts of coal-fired power.

A monk from Nidon village also expressed, “we are only protesting coal-fired power. If it does not produce a negative impact, we will not be against it. We just worry about the dangers of its impact. If we don’t speak up about the dangers of coal-fired power, villagers in this region will not know about it. That is why we have organized this sticker campaign.”

Daw Myint Aye, a nurse from Kaw Pa Naw village, expressed, “it is mainly to protect our region, to protect people in this region from the dangers of it