The Tasang Dam (), also known as the Mong Ton Dam, is a planned multi-purpose dam on the

Salween River The Salween is a Southeast Asian river, about long, flowing from the Tibetan Plateau south into the Andaman Sea. The Salween flows primarily within southwest China and eastern Myanmar, with a short section forming the border of Myanmar and Tha ...

in the

Shan State Shan State (, ; , ) is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. Shan State borders China (Yunnan) to the north, Laos (Louang Namtha Province, Louang Namtha and Bokeo Provinces) to the east, and Thailand (Chiang Rai Province, Chia ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. The Tasang dam's location will be northeast of

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

and west of Mongtong. If completed, Tasang Dam would be the first dam on the

, the largest

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

dam in Myanmar and the tallest dam in Southeast Asia. The Tasang will cost more than US$6 billion and is planned for completion in 2022. The groundbreaking ceremony was in March 2007, but construction has been stalled, and there has been little activity at the dam site as of 2008. Substantial domestic and international controversy surrounds the Tasang Dam project. The Tasang dam is one of five dams the Myanmar Government plans to build on the Salween River.

Background

Since the late 1990s, the

Burmese Government Myanmar (Names of Myanmar, formerly Burma) () operates ''de jure'' as a unitary state, unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 Constitution of Myanmar, 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Tatmadaw, Myanmar's military took ove ...

proposed to build the Tasang dam but was unable to implement the construction plan until this decade because of civil unrest. Nippon Koei, a Japanese company conducted studies for the dam in 1981 and subsequent studies were done in 2002. Thailand's MDX Group agreed in 2002 to develop the project. Thailand is the main investor in the dam project and the trade of the TaSang's electricity is expected to help relations between

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

. 85% of the hydro-electricity produced is expected to be transmitted to Thailand.

Design

The Tasang

concrete-faced rockfill dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, drinking water, human consumption, Indust ...

is designed to be tall and house a hydro-power station with a 7,110 MW capacity to produce 35,446 GWh annually. Tasang's

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

will bisect a large portion of

, preluding serious social and environmental problems.

Construction

Construction on the dam is being led by the Thai MDX Group along with the China Gezhouba Group Co., Sinohydro Corporation, China Southern Power Grid Company, China Three Gorges Project Corporation and the British Malcolm Dunstan & Associates. The groundbreaking ceremony for the dam was in March 2007, but since the ceremony, actual construction of the dam has been stalled, and there has been little activity at the dam-site.

Social Impact

Since 1996, as many as 300,000 villagers, mostly Shan people have been displaced to make room for the Tasang Dam's reservoir. Thousands more relocations are expected as construction progresses. The dam's reservoir will dissect

in half –almost to the Chinese border – and will negatively impact the local communities and ecosystems. Myanmar's Junta is responsible for the relocations and there have reports of serious human rights violations including executions.

Mizzima News Mizzima News () is a Burmese multimedia news organisation. A member of Burma News International, a local news coalition, Mizzima was established in exile in 1998, before establishing a bureau in Myanmar in the 2010s, as the military junta transi ...

br>Dam construction endangers lives of locals: report
, August 5, 2009, Retrieved on April 28, 2011

References

{{reflist Dams in Myanmar Dam controversies Proposed hydroelectric power stations Salween River Proposed renewable energy power stations in Myanmar