Triggered by heavy rainfall from a tropical cyclone, the Sittaung River in Myanmar has been steadily rising since 19 July, inundating more than 60 low-lying neighbourhoods and villages including Taungoo, Oktwin, Htantabin, Shwekyin, Nyaunglaypin, and Madauk Townships.

Locals report that most wells have been submerged or polluted by floodwater, leaving communities with little to no access to safe drinking water. Many are now relying on stored rainwater for survival.

The wells are flooded. In the town, we can’t even buy purified drinking water anymore, and prices have gone up. Roads are under water, cutting off the supply of goods. The situation is worse in the villages. Places like Oktwin, Htantabin, Madauk, and Shwekyin have completely run out of drinking water. —a local resident.

Communication lines have also been disrupted in many flood-hit areas, with phone and internet services down, hampering coordination efforts and delaying relief operations.

According to a local social welfare group in Taungoo, nearly 50,000 people have been affected in that township alone, where nine relief camps have been set up.

“People are still arriving at the camps. The water hasn’t risen today, but it hasn’t receded either. We’re helping families who are trying to relocate,” an official said.

In Madauk Township, nearly 90 percent of the area remains submerged after more than a week of continuous flooding.

Local sources say that the junta has imposed restrictions on independent relief teams, further limiting access to emergency aid.

“Relief work is only visible in Taungoo. In other areas, no official teams are present. Local authorities and civilians aren’t offering help either. There are military checkpoints between towns. People are desperate,” said a resident of Oktwin.

With no official aid reaching many villages, flood victims have sought shelter with relatives on higher ground or are surviving in makeshift tents. In Madauk’s Nyaunpinpauk village alone, over 10,000 people have reportedly been affected.

“Last year’s flooding was severe, but there was aid. This year, it’s worse, and no camps have been opened,” said a local from Madauk.

The floods have also devastated livelihoods across the region, with many residents cut off from work, food supplies, and essential services. Aid workers warn that thousands now depend entirely on humanitarian assistance to survive.

According to the junta’s Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, the Sittaung River remains above danger levels in Taungoo and Madauk and is likely to stay high for at least another day. The Shwekyin River is also expected to remain above its danger level, though it may drop slightly.

Residents anticipate continued flooding in the Sittaung River basin until early August. While seasonal flooding is common in the Bago Region, this marks the second consecutive year of extreme inundation, with increasing calls for long-term disaster preparedness and immediate emergency relief.

Shimul Chandra Paul, a resident of Parshuram in Feni, woke up to incessant rain for the third consecutive day. The looming risk of flooding, which had seemed unlikely just a day before, had suddenly become a reality. By noon, water had reached his village, rising rapidly with each passing minute. Before he could figure out how to save his belongings, the water level rose too high. Shimul barely managed to save himself, first taking refuge on a tin-shed rooftop before moving to a building in nearby bazaar as the surging waters continued to rise.

“We have never seen such massive rain in our lives. Even our fathers hadn’t,” said Shimul. Although the water rose rapidly, it didn’t recede as quickly. It took over a week for the discharge to begin. By then, Shyamal’s house was in ruins, and his properties were irreversibly damaged.

Shimul, his brothers, extended family, and millions of others in southeastern Bangladesh – along with the people in the Indian state of Tripura – were stranded in the prolonged flood in August 2024. Thousands lost their houses and belongings to the flash floods. But, except for inundating national sympathy and private help in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, many victims found no help as the government came up with little hope for them.

 

Thousands lost their houses and belongings to the flash floods. Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin

District officials in Cumilla and Feni reported shortages in relief supplies, immediately receiving only 400 metal sheet bundles and Tk12 lakh each, despite much higher demands as thousands of houses were damaged. However, around 300 houses were handed over to the victims by the government this April, while many needs relied on private aid or were simply left unmet as over 8,000 houses were fully or partially damaged in Feni alone.

 

As a result, people’s suffering worsened. Although private aid poured into flood-affected areas, many struggled without food and water for days, as relief workers faced difficulties reaching remote areas. Even after the water finally receded, the devastation left behind was staggering. Waves of diseases spread, and many victims received little to no assistance for rehabilitation.

Erratic rainfall – the force behind August disaster

From August 19-23, 2024, Bangladesh’s Feni recorded 832 mm of rain in just five days, while Comilla received 513 mm and Noakhali 605 mm. This erratic downpour, combined with water cascading from the hilly regions across the Indian border in Tripura, triggered the unprecedented flood in southeastern Bangladesh.

Tripura also recorded one of its highest 24-hour rainfall totals on August 22, 2024. For example, South Tripura District (Bokafa) received 493.6 mm, Sepahijala District (Sonamura) 293.4 mm, West Tripura District (Agartala) 233 mm, and Gomati District (Udaipur) 155 mm in 24 hours, exacerbating the flood situation in the Indian state.

K M Abdul Wadud, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, said both Feni and Tripura receiving a gigantic amount of rain simultaneously overstrained the discharge channels, which were already encroached.

“Water from both sides was released into the same area. The Gomti, Mohuri, Kohua, and Feni rivers are hilly and shallow, with limited capacity. If it had been only upstream water, we would have had some lead time and an opportunity to issue early warnings.”

On a monthly estimate, in August 2024, Feni recorded a total of 1,787 mm of rainfall.

According to our analysis of 30 years of daily and monthly data, the previous highest recorded rainfall in August for Feni was 858 mm in 1998. Similarly, Noakhali received 1,646 mm of rain in August 2024, whereas its highest in the past 30 years was 897 mm in 1998. Comilla recorded 880 mm, significantly surpassing its previous near-highest record of 523 mm from the previous year.

 

For instance, in Sylhet, the highest recorded monthly rainfall in June was 1,288 mm in 2006, based on our 30-year data analysis. The average is far below. However, in the past three years, rainfall levels have consecutively far exceeded or come close to this record – reaching 2,124 mm in 2024, 1,485 mm in 2022, and 1,267 mm in 2023.

“The August rainfall in Feni was about three times higher than the 30-year average. Since this massive rainfall occurred in a clustered manner, it became a major trigger for flooding, highlighting the abrupt shift in rainfall patterns due to climate change,” said Dr. Md Sarwar Hossain, Associate Professor at the University of Glasgow’s School of Social and Environmental Sustainability.

A similar erratic rainfall pattern was also observed on the Indian side in Tripura. But questions remain about whether information was exchanged regarding the opening of the Dumbur Dam gates. If it wasn’t shared, we need to determine who is responsible,” he said.

When asked if India notified Bangladesh before releasing water from the Dumbur Dam and whether an agreement mandates such notification, Wadud said, “Yes, regional data is shared”, and emphasized that they “do not rely solely on Indian data. We use our own assumption models.”

What was unusual in the Feni flood was the local rainfall, Wadud said. There was a cloudburst, which added to the regular monsoon rains.

“The Feni event was highly unusual – so many things don’t usually happen all at once,” he added.

Sarwar Hossain said erratic rainfall is likely to increase in the future, but with canals disappearing and rivers narrowing, flash floods will only heighten the risks further. He also emphasised the need for an early warning system and a robust disaster management mechanism to minimise damage from flash floods.

Vanishing waterways and encroachment

Erratic rainfall triggered the initial flooding, but the decay of rivers and the encroachment on waterways, such as canals, worsened the situation in Bangladesh – prolonging the suffering as floodwaters had nowhere to drain. We investigated satellite images and conducted field visits to see first-hand the ruined canals and encroached waterways.

The Pagli Chhara canal in Feni’s Daudpur, for example, illustrates the impact of encroachment and pollution. Once over 30 feet wide, it was navigated by boats and even served as a docking point for cargo ships coming from Noakhali. Now, in some areas, it is less than three feet wide and largely filled in.

“This canal had good water flow even a few years ago, but encroachment has nearly destroyed it,” said Nurul Islam, a local resident.

Other canals, such as the Damdama Canal, have become drains. Locals say that dozens of such water bodies have disappeared from Feni city in the last two decades, with canals and water flow filled in or destroyed. Experts warn that the reduction of water bodies in a city significantly increases flood risks.

“Mohuri, Kohua, and Silonia rivers have been encroached on both sides, narrowing the rivers. Houses have been built in riverbeds, and tree plantations along the riverbed have obstructed water flow,” said M A Hasan, a journalist based in Feni.

When asked what made the Feni flood worse and why no significant river restoration projects had succeeded, Wadud pointed out the negligence in water management systems.

“Our water flows from north to south, yet we keep building roads that cross from east to west, which creates obstacles. But riverbanks aren’t dredged properly – there’s no integrated coordination. We face water shortages during the dry season, yet have overflowing rivers during the monsoon. These are also forms of disaster,” he added.

Nayma Baten, a meteorologist at the Climate Division of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said that while erratic rainfall has contributed to flooding, the narrowing of rivers and the disappearance of other water bodies have worsened the flash flood situation.

“Water can no longer flow effectively through the rivers or be released through running water bodies. This was evident when we received heavy rainfall several decades ago – the floods were not as severe because the rivers were free-flowing,” she said.

The Feni River, a vital drainage route for Feni, Khagrachari, and Chittagong, flows approximately 153 km into the Bay of Bengal. Nearby, the 50-km Muhuri Project dam, built in 1984 to protect Mirsarai and Sonagazi from floods, has contributed to the formation of chars. Over time, fish enclosures and ponds, established through occupation or leasing, have further obstructed water flow.

Meanwhile, the Gomti River, which flows through Cumilla, has also dried up and narrowed down in places, obstructing its capacity to carry enough water.

Negligence in post-flood rehabilitation

The August 2024 flood caused massive damage to lives and livelihoods. Flood victims in these districts, having essentially lost everything, needed assistance from the authorities to rebuild and restart.

However, despite private efforts during the flood to save lives, the people in these areas didn’t get adequate support for rehabilitation.

“I got Tk50,000 for rebuilding my house, which was destroyed, but this fund is not enough, so I still couldn’t start the rebuilding of my house,” Shaymol Chandra said. “But my brothers didn’t get a penny from anyone, the flood had damaged their houses too.”

 

By combining flood extent data from ARIA Water Maps (OPERA Dynamic Surface Water Extent) and the UNOSAT SAR AI model, our analysis shows that at least 8,000 structures in Feni and surrounding areas (orange) with flooded areas (light blue), highlighting the scale of inundation. Credit: Arun Karki

When asked about the gaps in relief distribution and funding for flood rehabilitation, Wadud, addressing the lack of funds, said the budgetary timeframe had something to do with poor government response.

“Our disaster management fund is governed by specific rules – there is a Disaster Management Act that allows local collection of funds, but Deputy Commissioners (DCs) often don’t collect them. Even when funds are available locally, they must be returned to the government by June [budget year end]. But floods usually begin in July. This becomes a major barrier.”

Juel Mahmud, former Programme Coordinator at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), said that erratic precipitation patterns themselves hinder resilience capacity.

“We have mechanisms in place to deal with such flood situations. But the erratic nature of it, coupled with the failure of local officials, exacerbated the suffering of the people,” he said.

Md Sirajul Islam, a local social worker, said that flood survivors in remote areas hadn’t received help.

“Our agriculture had been severely damaged. While there has been some effort to support farmers with rice seedlings from the northern area, it has been minimal compared to the actual need. If the government could provide enough seeds, fertilisers, or at least subsidised fertilisers, our farmers could have overcome this crisis.”

“Our land is fertile. Our watermelons meet the demand of several districts. If our farmers are properly supported, they will stand on their own feet again,” Sirajul Islam said.

Mohammad Abed Ali District Relief & Rehabilitation Officer in Cumilla, said that against a demand for one lakh bundles of corrugated metal sheets, they received only 400 bundles and Tk12 lakh. “We submitted our requisition, but the department couldn’t provide us with more,” he said.

In Feni, on the other hand, about 8659 houses were destroyed in full or partially. District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Mahbub Alam said they also received 400 bundles of corrugated metal sheets and Tk12 lakh besides private help, which was inadequate to the demand.

However, according to a document shared by Mahbub, some other government wings, including the military, have built around 300 houses, which was delivered to the victims this April. The document also lists donations from NGOs and non-profits such as UNDP, WFP, and others.

While most donations ranged between Tk 6,000 and Tk 30,000 – providing a little relief in the rebuilding process – As Sunnah Foundation offered Tk 300,000 per damaged family. However, they were able to assist only 287 families, whereas over 1,700 houses were completely destroyed.

 

The erratic nature of rainfall and accompanying flash flood exacerbated the suffering of the people. Photo: Mohammad Minhaj Uddin

“The flood claimed everything we had, and most of us are now left alone in the fight to rebuild our lives,” Shimul said. “Only God knows how we will survive if such a disaster strikes us again.”

After last year’s flood, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the Ministry of Water Resources, promised embankments in strategic locations, modern surveys, cancellation of illegal sand leases, and eviction of river encroachers to prevent future disasters.

Around a year later, at a recent advisory council meeting, the officials discussed finalising designs for the Musapur Regulator and Bamni Closure, permanent embankments in Feni, and freeing drainage canals in Noakhali.

Pointing out that a year has passed and these project discussions remain “finalising” or “ongoing,” river researcher Sheikh Rokon wrote in a recent column: “It is inevitable to question: what has the government actually done in the past year to tackle flooding in Feni?

Across the beds of Feni’s rivers, there is now cultivation and fish farming. Why couldn’t the government remove these encroachments over the past year? No matter how many embankments or structures are built or repaired, they will not be sustainable without clearing these flow paths,” he added.

 

Clutching a mengkuang-weave bag tightly to her chest, Alang Angah’s face clouded with anguish at the mention of her late father, Angah Alang.

“He went to bathe in the river but never returned,” she said, but it was all she could muster before falling silent, overcome by grief nine years after the tragic death.

The death of Angah, 76, in just three feet of water in the river he bathed and fished in all his life, was not just a personal tragedy for his family.

With him died a repository of tradition and knowledge, passed down for generations in the quiet Temiar community.

 

Alang Angah, the daughter of community patriarch Angah Alang, who was killed in the river amid a deluge that rushed downstream from the mining, allegedly after a mining pond barrier at a slope gave way. The mine operator denies fault. Photo: Malaysiakini

The villagers believe the flood was man-made, pointing to Bukit Tambun where two licensed iron ore mining operations have been progressively disfiguring their hunting grounds, destroying some of their natural resources, and desecrating parts of areas sacred to the Temiar tribe from generations ago.

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READ: Iron Ore Mining is invading an indigenous Orang Asli Community in Malaysia

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That day, Angah’s grandson Alai Alang said, a tailing pond sitting on a ridge on Bukit Tambun gave way, and water rushed down to where his grandfather was bathing.

The site at Bukit Tambun, which Malaysiakini visited, still shows tell-tale signs of what happened but the pond, with ridge still covered in tailing. The pond, however, has been moved further from the slope.

The mine operator, Redstar Capital Sdn Bhd, said the mining operations had nothing to do with Angah’s death.

Its administrative manager Julice Chu told Malaysiakini the company cooperated with police on the matter, and the case was closed

“You shall refer to the authorities with regards to the facts, instead of relying solely on the untrue and inaccurate allegations,” she said in a statement.

 

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Secluded Paradise laid to Ruin

 

Nothing prepared the quiet community for the vast changes that would come with the opening of the Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway in 2004. Indeed, nobody told them it would happen.

Without their consent, their pristine rainforest home turned into oil palm, rubber and durian plantations. In 2009, the first iron ore mine, operated by the Chinese national-owned firm Sterling Goldhill Sdn Bhd completely changed the landscape of their ancestral land.

Before that, the Temiar of Kampung Kelaik lived in seclusion, separate from Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang and without an administrative centre or “post”.

Even today, getting to the village is a bumpy 30-minute journey through logging trails by four-wheel drive vehicle, from the turn off at the highway.

 

Bukit Tambun (left) and Kampung Kelaik (right), Gua Musang, Kelantan. Photos: Malaysiakini

With no electricity or piped water, they drank from clear streams, foraged and hunted for what they needed, and felt little need to venture beyond their homeland. Even the unhurried pace of Gua Musang town is too bustling for them, said Ahak.

It took the 200 residents of Kampung Kelaik several years after the destruction to realise they had a right to object.

“Twenty years ago when loggers entered our ancestral grounds, some elders from neighbouring Orang Asli posts warned us that challenging the government’s decisions was considered seditious,” he said.

 

 

Poison in Bloodstreams

Returning to Kampung Kelaik more than a decade later, Malaysiakini in the past months conducted more tests on water samples taken at various points of the river – near discharge points of both mines and downstream where Kampung Kelaik residents bathe, swim and fish.

 

Alarmingly, the tests showed levels of chromium – an element which could cause cancer – were far higher than permissible near the discharge point near the mine run by Aqua Orion, and downstream near Kampung Kelaik.

Even more worrying was the blood test results of one villager, Azlan Ahak, 19, the son of village leader Ahak, whose blood sample was found to have chromium levels four times the normal range, raising his cancer risk 64,000 times higher than normal.

 

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How is Iron Ore Mined?

 

Near Deaths of Children

Over the years since mining started, water carrying debris would come thundering down to Sungai Kelaik near the village, often without warning, Ahak said.

“During the rainy season, it was daily,” he said.

In 2013, two years before Angah died, children playing in the same river were nearly swept away in a similar incident.

But the mine operator at the time, Sterling Goldhill said it does not discharge iron tailing effluent into the river and reuses the water in mining operations.

Sterling Goldhill has wound up its business and the mine is now run by Redstar Capital Sdn Bhd.

When contacted, Redstar Capital manager Chu, reiterated that the mine doesn’t discharge water into rivers and reuses the water for mining operations. Chu was also attached to Sterling Goldhill.

But when visiting the site, Malaysiakini saw at least two points where water from Redstar Capital’s ponds were released into streams, with at least one via a water lock.

The other mine operator, Aqua Orion and the mine’s licence holder Syarikat Perlombongan Gua Musang, have yet to respond to Malaysiakini’s request for comment.

An 8km hike into Bukit Tambun from a nearby village reveals a once-thriving rainforest reduced to a muddy, uneven wasteland.

Juvenile trees are strewn across man-made ravines, hastily carved by unskilled migrant workers using excavators in a process locals call “cuci hutan,” or “jungle clearing”, where everything is uprooted and removed.

 

Due to the small size of the rivers that originate from the Bukit Tambun peak, both mines have dammed them to create enough catchment for their water-intensive operations, said Alai.

Licensees under the Waters Act 1920, can, under the supervision of the District Officer, construct infrastructure such as dams and pipes, provided they compensate landowners and remain accountable for any damage caused.

The Act regulates water diversion and construction near rivers to protect water resources and manage flood risks, outlining clear guidelines on licensing, liability, and penalties.

Because of the damming, during the dry seasons, the rivers dry up to become smaller streams, villagers say.

When met, the district officer Nik Raisman Daud said he would instruct the relevant department to inspect the mining sites and investigate allegations of irregularities.

Malaysiakini has also contacted the Environment Department, Geosciences and Mineral Department and the Orang Asli Development Department for comment.

 

Heavy metal levels in fish and ferns

He said although the iron levels in the fish from Kampung Kelaik are higher than the food standards, it is comparable with many freshwater fish.

“Iron levels found in freshwater fish range between 20mg/kg – 100mg/kg,” he told Malaysiakini.

Lawsuit on encroachment of native land

The test results are all compiled as evidence as the Kampung Kelaik residents try to take their matter to the courts again.

Between 2022 and 2023, they tried to seek a court injunction to stop everything that changed the landscape of the entire 8,000ha of their ancestral land  – the logging, the palm oil and durian plantations and the mines. But they failed.

Undeterred, they have filed a lawsuit against 10 companies, the state government and three agencies against encroachment into their native land, crowdsourcing legal costs and support.

 

(Left) Ahak showing a hand-drawn map he made by trekking the borders of 8,923.9ha of Temiar Kampung Kelaik’s ancestral land; (Right) A villager showing a grave. They also bury old knives in a bucket at the grave. Many burial grounds were encroached, they say. Photos: Malaysiakini

Using GPS technology, Ahak and the villagers have painstakingly marked out the boundaries of their native land.

Spreading open a hand-drawn map of their land, Ahak reveals how he has shaded in red about 80 percent of the 8,923.9ha that makes up their native land.

Those areas have already been encroached on by iron ore mining, oil palm and rubber plantations, forest plantations and Malaysia’s largest Musang King plantation.

 

Temiar men gathering around a bonfire on a pitch-black night. Photo: Malaysiakini

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Disappearing way of life

One of the claims they make in their lawsuit is a loss of their native way of life because of the mining, logging and plantation activities. To outsiders, the trees felled are just logs but to the villagers, they are family heirlooms, markers of hunting trails.

When each of them is born, a tree is planted for them. Villagers could point out which tree belongs to whom, and which have been passed down for generations.

The trunk of one inherited rubber tree, planted at least 80 years old, was so large that it took four adult men to wrap their arms around the circumference.

But many of these heirloom trees were logged or bulldozed without consent, they said. The clearing and activities have also desecrated burial grounds.

 

(Left) Villagers watch trucks carrying large logs pass by, leaving a dusty cloud along the trail; (Right) A rubber tree planted 80 years ago is a treasured heirloom. Photos: Malaysiakini

Standing by a dammed river near the top of Bukit Tambun, Alai points to the ravine where the river once flowed. It used to be a favourite camping spot when he hunted with his late father.

“Sometimes we stayed for a month, hunting and living in the dense rainforest, and there were no dirt roads back then.

“Food was plentiful, and we used to catch fish as big as these tree logs,” he added, gesturing to the forest they once trekked through on foot.Now Bukit Tambun is slowly disappearing as excavators continue to chip away at the iron-rich soil.

Azlan Ahak, 19, (sitting, right), with his father, Ahak Uda, 57, (sitting, left) and other relatives take a break from house building. Photo: Malaysiakini

Robbed of heritage, robbed of future

But the roar of the heavy machinery had driven wildlife away, and many villagers had to seek work at the mine, to earn money to buy provisions they once hunted or foraged.

The mining has not just robbed the villagers of their heritage and way of life. It may also rob them of their future.

For Azlan, the teenager whose blood chromium levels were four times the normal range, it means an estimated 64,000 times higher chance of developing cancer in his lifetime.

Chemical health expert, How, estimates that six percent of villagers who have the same exposure as Azlan could face the same dim outlook.

The lawsuit is their final hope to make it all stop.

 

Angah Alang, 76, was an adept swimmer and skilled tribesperson, but on July 23, 2015, he died in just three feet of water.

His body was found trapped among logs and shrubbery which rampaged down the river in a flash flood, along with boulders and mountain debris, some 10km downstream from an iron ore mine uphill.

The Orang Asli patriarch’s death in the river he had fished, swam, and bathed in almost all his life, was a terrible shock to the quiet, remote Temiar community of Kampung Kelaik near Gua Musang, who to this day are grief-stricken by the loss.

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At a spot along the quiet Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway, raw iron ore – dark and gritty like coarse sand and almost black in colour – lies in heaps awaiting collection.

“These heaps remain untouched until the company receives an order, which can take up to six months. We know the iron is transported to Prai (in Penang), but we don’t know exactly where,” said Ahak Uda, the leader of the Kampung Kelaik action committee.

The ore comes from two mines near Kampung Kelaik, a Temiar Orang Asli village in the hinterlands of Gua Musang, which have been ravaged after more than a decade of mining. The two mines are Redstar Capital, which started in 2009, and Aqua Orion, which began operations in 2015.

There, the rivers have turned a rusty red, while what was once a thriving rainforest has turned into a muddy wasteland.

The plight of the Temiar of Kampung Kelaik was first highlighted by Malaysiakini in 2012, when it was reported that the river was so tainted that rice cooked with its water also emerged with a rusty red tint. Returning more than a decade later, Malaysiakini had over the past months conducted multiple water and environment sampling at various points of the river, and on fish and ferns. 

They also conducted tests on blood samples of six villagers who consented to have their blood tested for heavy metals. 

Alarmingly, it found that one villager – Azlan Ahak, 19 – who spent the most time in the river daily, had chromium levels four times the normal range in his blood.

How did Chromium get into Azlan’s blood?

Tests conducted by Malaysiakini at the discharge points of the two iron ore mines operating upstream of Kampung Kelaik showed for one of the mines – Aqua Orion – the level of chromium was at 2.6mg/L.

This exceeded the limits allowed by the Department of Environment, said water quality expert Zaki Zainudin, who reviewed the water sample test results.The Department of Minerals and Geosciences does not have a set limit for total chromium, but it sets a limit for two variants of chromium – chromium-6 (0.05mg/L) and chromium-3 (1 mg/L) under the Minerals Development (Effluent) Regulations 2016.

On Zaki’s advice, water samples taken on a subsequent expedition were tested for chromium-6 and chromium-3 separately.

It was found that the sample from a pond where tailing sediments were dumped found elevated levels of both chromium-6 (19.4mg/L) and chromium-3 (34.8mg/L).

The permissible levels by DOE are 1.4mg/L and 2.5mg/L respectively for Class III water sources. Class III refers to rivers that can support aquatic and some human activities with proper treatment.

• 
  Department of Environment River Classes and Uses
  +
  

  CLASS I—Clean river with no treatment necessary.

  CLASS IIA—Can be used for fisheries and water supply with conventional treatment.

  CLASS IIB—Suitable for recreational use with body contact.

  CLASS III—Can be used for water supply with extensive treatment and for fishery and livestock drinking.

  CLASS IV—Can be used for irrigation.

  CLASS V—Polluted river which cannot be used.

Effluents from the pond were released into a river, which found its way to Kampung Kelaik – something Zaki said should not happen.

It is crucial to prevent these elevated levels from entering nearby watercourses, such as rivers and ponds, as they could pose serious health and environmental risks. — Zaki Zainudin, water quality expert.

Water sampling downstream, where Azlan and other villagers access the river for bathing or fishing found a much lower level of chromium – 0.52mg/L for chromium-3 and less than 0.01 for chromium-6.

But it had rained just an hour before sampling.

“Heavy rainfall could dilute the chromium concentration in the water at the time of sampling,” said chemical health expert Vivien How. “Rain can also wash contaminated sediments from upstream areas into rivers, potentially increasing exposure to heavy metals in direct contact with the water.

“However, this may not reflect in a single water sample taken after dilution effects from rain,” she said.

[The infographic below is a looping gif – please pause to view and understand it accurately] 

 

Chemical analysis expert How said that further analysis was required to conclusively link the chromium in Azlan’s blood with pollution in the river but the water and blood data showed it is likely.

She added that the test results didn’t show high chromium levels in the swimming area due to heavy rain during sampling, which might have masked true contamination.

When asked if the plantations may have also contributed to the chromium contamination, she said that the pesticides used can “seep into the soil, contaminate the water, and further enhance environmental burdens”.

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Elevated Risk of Cancer

How said the findings are red flags, enough to warrant further investigations by relevant authorities, especially due to the severe health implications.

She then estimated Azlan’s lifetime carcinogenic risk (LCR) from his test results. This measures the risk of him developing cancer in his lifetime. She found that it “far exceeded” the normal threshold. How far is that?

[The graphics below are looping gifs – please pause to view them accurately] 

“Using Azlan’s exposure data as a reference for the villagers, this suggested a severe risk of developing non-carcinogenic health effects from chromium exposure through prolonged reliance on the river as a water source. Potential impacts may include kidney, liver, and respiratory issues over the course of exposure,” said How.

Read Vivien How’s technical report here.

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Most Exposure to the River

Azlan was the only one among six villagers tested who had higher than normal chromium levels in his blood. How said his result was “worrying”.

Azlan was also the youngest among them, and spent the most time in the river, compared to the other villagers willing to be tested. “The aluminium, arsenic, and chromium are telling us something… It’s enough to raise concern and bring awareness of this to the relevant parties,” she said.

 

 

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Once a Secluded Paradise

 

Satellite image from 2023 shows how iron ore mining has ravaged pristine rainforests, home of the Temiar folk of Kampung Kelaik near Gua Musang. Image: Malaysiakini

The Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway, which opened in 2004, accelerated the spread of oil palm, rubber, and durian plantations, and the mining operations on their ancestral land.

Before that, this Temiar community of about 200 people lived in seclusion, separate from Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang and without an administrative centre or “post”.

With no electricity or piped water, they drank from clear streams, foraged and hunted for what they needed, and felt little need to venture beyond their homeland. Even the unhurried pace of Gua Musang town was too bustling for them, said Ahak.

 

The stream on the left is slightly further from Kampung Kelaik. The water is clear, compared to the rivers at Kampung Kelaik (right), located directly downstream from the mines. Photos: (left) Azneal Ishak, (right) Kg Kelaik villagers via Malaysiakini

Iron ore mining in Kampung Kelaik started in 2009 when Azlan was just four years old.

By the age of five, he was already joining fishing and hunting expeditions, recalled his father, Ahak, who spoke on his behalf because Azlan was not fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.

Today, he visits the water up to three times a week, his father said.

He spends hours at a time in the river, catching fish and frogs, the community’s main source of protein, especially now that wild game has been chased away by widescale deforestation and the sound of heavy machinery from mining activities.

Since the river they used for drinking, bathing, and fishing for generations started turning red, Kampung Kelaik, with the help of the Health Department and NGOs, sourced water from a neighbouring uphill stream. The stream is clear, compared to the rivers downstream from the mines.

 

A mini reservoir built with the help of NGOs and the Health Department is meant to capture water from an unpolluted stream further away from Kampung Kelaik and pipe it down to the village. But the reservoir often gets clogged by natural debris. Photo: S Vinothaa/Malaysiakini

But these streams are too small to sustain fish populations, and during heavy downpours, the gravity pipe system and small reservoir built to source water is clogged by debris, cutting water supply, sometimes for days, Ahak said.

The struggle even for the most basic things – water – had worn down the community. They feel they have lost more than just the tranquillity of their forest.

Even the skins of the frogs were stained with a cakey, rusty red film by the time the villagers catch them.

 

 

Skin lesions, breathing and neurological difficulties

Like Azlan, those who can’t afford to buy food from outside the village continue to spend hours in the rivers, despite the lesions developing on their skin.

Loophole in the Law

While higher than permissible rates of chromium and other heavy metals found near the discharge point at Aqua Orion may appear like a clear violation of the law, Zaki, the water quality expert, said enforcing it might be a challenge.

 

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Redstar Capital: We comply to all regulations

The Minerals and Geosciences Department (JMG) has yet to respond to Malaysiakini’s questions on suspected irregularities in the mining at Kampung Kelaik.

However, the department confirmed that Redstar Capital is the contractor responsible for the mining operations under a 20-year lease held by Syarikat Perlombongan Gua Musang Sdn Bhd since 2009.

Aqua Orion, meanwhile, was issued a mining licence for 2015 to 2025, the department said.

Redstar Capital administration manager, Julice Chu Lai Siong, defended the company’s practices, and said that media coverage of the issue over the past 10 years had been one-sided.

“We have received questions from the government…Our operations follow the rules,” she said when contacted via telephone.

Responding to Malaysiakini’s email later, she said the mine uses a “closed circuit” and “zero discharge” concept.

“Effluent water will be recycled to be used for mining processing and no effluent water will be released into the river,” she said, adding that the mine does regular effluent monitoring, and rivers nearby are sampled and sent to the JMG and DOE monthly for checks. “We will comply with the JMG standard limits of chromium-3 and chromium-6 which are 0.20 mg/L and 0.05mg/L respectively.”

She said Redstar Capital has never received complaints from the community about its operations, and that community patriarch Alang Angah’s death nine years ago was unrelated to its operation. The police case on the matter has also been closed, she said.

Malaysiakini has also contacted the other mine operator Aqua Orion, Syarikat Pelombongan Gua Musang, and the Department of Orang Asli Affairs (Jakoa) for comment.

 

We want our Land back

Ahak’s voice betrayed the anguish and worry he tried to hide when Malaysiakini called him with the bad news about his son Azlan’s blood test.

With urgency in his voice, he asked if all the villagers could be tested because the river is central to their lives – for fishing, washing, and playing.

“Many others go to the river more often. This is very dangerous, and I’m deeply concerned for their safety.”

When met, Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told Malaysiakini his ministry would conduct further testing on the villagers to assess them for heavy metal poisoning, following the high levels of chromium found in Azlan’s blood sample.

Lawsuit against Native Land Encroachment

Ahak is now even more resolved to see through the community’s civil suit against the Kelantan government and other parties the villagers accused of encroaching into some 8,000 hectares of ancestral land and their way of life.

They have filed a lawsuit against 10 companies, the state government, and three agencies, crowdsourcing legal costs and support.

“We want our ancestral land back. We believe if these operations stop, the land will heal and eventually return to its original state, allowing future generations to thrive here,” Ahak said.

“We are the original people of this land and we have every right to reclaim what is ours.”

 

 

“Even animals need water. Without water, we will die in vain,” Ratna griped.

The 58-year-old was upset that the water from the local spring water system that flowed into her house was now full of mud. This had become a regular occurrence ever since nickel mining company PT Gema Kreasi Perdana started its operations on Wawonii Island in Konawe Islands Regency in Southeast Sulawesi. The company, the sole owner of a concession permit on the island, is a subsidiary of natural resources conglomerate Harita Group – owned by one of Indonesia’s richest men, Lim Hariyanto Wijaya Sarwono. 

Ratna could not hold back her tears. She was angry at the company that had degraded the environment and was disappointed at fellow residents who supported mining on the 706-square-kilometer island.

The mining operation has affected every aspect of her life. She has to wait for hours for the water to be clean enough to be used for bathing and doing her laundry and dishes. Furthermore, she now has to buy drinkable water, which costs her about 50 US cents a gallon. 

The impacts of mining on the island’s spring water system possibly started on May 21, 2023. At that time, farmers noticed that the water spring had become increasingly murky, while the pipe used to distribute water from the island’s only water reservoir was cut off. They believed that some people might have purposely cut the water distribution to contain the problem.   

Ratna had seen this coming when the nickel company started its operations there.

Those who sold the land said the mining wouldn’t harm us, but now, we’re all looking for clean water. They were fooled by the company. We’re doomed here. —Ratna, lifelong resident of Sukarela Jaya Village, Southeast Wamonii.

The mother of two was never tempted to sell her land, despite being offered hundreds of millions of rupiah. The company’s money could run out in an instant, she said, but the crops could be enjoyed perennially. 

“The yield of nutmeg in one year can be tons. We are criticized for refusing good fortune [by selling our land]. Doesn’t the abundance of nutmeg bring good fortune?”

Life had been sufficiently good for Ratna before the nickel miners came. Her plantation allowed her to acquire basic necessities and also save enough money to make an umrah pilgrimage to Mecca in early 2023.

“It’s totally okay to have just enough money to buy food. We must think far ahead. We have a younger generation”. She admitted that she was frustrated at the fact that her complaints had been ignored despite having to face the same problems on a daily basis.  

Amid public protests, excavators proceeded to clear the land and dredge the soil. Vehicles carrying nickel ore continued to pass towards the port, which was located only 200 metres or so from Ratna’s house. 

It’s only natural that Ratna plans to abstain in the upcoming elections. She feels abandoned by the council members, who are supposed to represent the people. “Our voice means nothing to the council members. When we expressed our opposition to the mining, we were thrown out like animals. We were even attacked with tear gas during our protest in Kendari. I almost died from suffocation.”

They say investors bring prosperity, but in reality they only bring misery. The investors are killing us slowly. There is no justice being served; there is no humanity. It is like living under colonialism. We are colonized by our own country. —Ratna

Fleeing into the Forest

It was 6 in the morning in May 2023 in Sukarela Jaya Village, and Hastati was busy splitting no less than a thousand old coconuts to make copra. Half of the coconuts were harvested from her plantation, and the rest were purchased from her neighbours. The number of coconuts produced in one harvest time, or every three months, is usually around 3,000. Meanwhile, the price of white copra is Rp 7,500 per kg and black copra Rp 6,500 per kg. Apart from coconut meat, Hastati makes a living from selling coconut shell charcoal. 

Like other residents who objected to the nickel mining, Hastati was satisfied making a living from the proceeds of her plantation. The 45-year-old was once offered Rp 1 billion to give up the 2-hectare plot of land she inherited from her parents. She was also promised a fully funded umrah and education for her six children, but Hastati never accepted the offer.

“We want to defend our lands, and the rest of Wawonii Island. It’s better for us to be independent like this,” she said. Like Ratna, she emphasised that the company’s money could run out in the blink of an eye, while a well-maintained natural environment could provide a living for many generations. 

“When the mountain is completely dredged, the company will leave. What about us, then?”

On Hastati’s land grows nutmeg, cloves, and cashew nuts. Last year, she harvested 50 kg of cloves. The average nutmeg yield was 5 kg. Cashews are the most productive, as the harvest can reach up to 4 tonnes in a year.

Like Ratna, the scarcity of clean water has affected all aspects of her life. Hastati never thought she would go through this difficult time. Before the mining company came, the residents had never lacked clean water as water from the Banda Spring flowed freely into the villages.

“Now we have to go to the river to wash. How can we not be angry?”

As a form of resistance to the mining activities, Hastati refused to accept clean water from the company. It was not just about the water; it was about principles, she said. “Now we have to use river water for cooking.”

Hastati will never forget what happened in 2022, when she and other women stripped off their clothes during a protest against the nickel mining. She also hid in the forest for almost two months. She was afraid of being arrested for ‘obstructing’ the mining operation. 

“We were just defending our land, but the police were chasing us as if we were thieves or murderers”.

 

 

Hastati hid in the forest with eight other residents, including Amlia who refused to sell her land for roads for the mine’s trucks and heavy machinery. 

I met Amlia in her farm on May 20, 2023. She said that she hid in the forest after receiving a summons as a “witness” by the Konawe Islands Police. 

“The persons summoned by the police were the ones who owned the land. As long as they did not give up the land, they would not be released. We thought it’d be better to run than answering the summons.”

Amlia and others went through difficult times when hiding in the forest. They roamed through the forest during the day and looked for a hut to take shelter when the night came. Some days they did not eat at all.

“Even when we could eat, we did not feel like eating. When we rested, we were still anxious. How could we stay calm? The police were looking for us,” said Amlia.

Like Hastati, Amlia was also promised a large sum of money. Her husband and eldest son were both offered a salary from the corporation, without the need to do any work, but she was not tempted by the offer. 

Cassava, chilli, banana, and coconut trees grow near her hut. Heavy rain a few days earlier  inundated part of the farm with water that carried red mud sediment. Amlia was sure the mud came from the excavated land in mining areas.

The nickel mining has further affected her daily routine as a farmer. She used to go to the farm at 8 in the morning, but now she has to start one-and-a-half hours earlier since access to the farm is blocked by the company’s haul roads. To reach her farm, Amlia needs to walk two hours from where she can park her motorbike. During harvest season, Amlia and her husband have no choice but to carry 20 to 30 kilograms of produce by foot over the hilly roads.

“Even though it is difficult, we are still trying to do our best. As farmers, our income indeed comes from gardening,” said Amalia who was carrying 20 kg of cassava from her farm to the motorbike.

 

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Damaged Water Springs

Just like the other days, Saharia, a resident of Dompo-Dompo Jaya village, woke up early in the morning to prepare her family’s breakfast. But when she turned on the tap to wash the fish, the water turned orange. Luckily, there was some water in the tank  left from the rain a few days ago.

The 50-year-old is a single mother of four children. Her family owns 250 square metres of garden planted with coconuts, cashews, nutmeg, and cloves. The coconut flesh was later turned into copra, and the shell into charcoal. Saharia was consumed by anxiety as their garden could be taken over at any time by the corporation.

PT Gema Kreasi Perdana started the production and shipment of nickel ore in August 2022, shortly before the pollution of water springs began to be reported. The two main supply channels of clean water in the Sukarela Jaya and Dompo-Dompo Jaya villages have seemingly been polluted by mud since heavy rainfall hit on May 9, 2023.

 

On May 19, 2023, I visited the Banda Spring in Southeast Wawonii forest, about an hour walk from Dompo-Dompo Jaya Village. The spring, situated in a karst cave at an altitude of 119 metres above sea level, flows into several tributaries serving as sources of irrigation for residents’ farms and rice fields. 

On May 21, the area experienced another round of rain. The water in Sukarela Jaya, Dompo-Dompo Jaya, and Roko-Roko turned dark. Those residing on the seashore were busy cleaning the gutters, removing mud carried by rainwater. Locals said changes in the colour of seawater have always occurred after rain, but never with such dramatic contrast. 

When I checked the pipes in the settlement, the water was dark. Less than two hours after the rain, water distribution was cut off. Later, I met some women carrying bundles of clothes on their motorbikes. “I am going to do the laundry,” one woman shouted. “The water (flowing into our houses) is useless,” another chimed in.

I then visited the confluence of Roko-Roko River and Tambusiu-Siu River, which supply water to the Banda Spring. The colour difference between the two rivers was quite striking; Roko-Roko was slightly murky, while Tambusiu-Siu was brown. Roko-Roko is the only stream that is not polluted by the mining activities and can still be used by residents for bathing, washing, and cooking. The mining corporation has apparently distributed clean water to the residents, but some of them have refused it to signify their rejection of mining in Wawonii.

 

Saharia is among the local residents who object to nickel mining in the area. As a single parent, she has the dual role of taking care of the household and earning a living. The environmental destruction caused by the mining has only made things more difficult for her. To get clean water, she now has to walk to a river 500 metres away from her house. The scarcity of water has forced the family to reduce the frequency with which they go to the toilet. In Saharia’s house, there are three women who go through their menstrual phase every month.

It is very difficult for us when we’re going through our period . We are required to clean ourselves frequently, but what can we do without water? —Saharia

Until the dry season came in mid-August, clean water had yet to be restored. The water flowing in the pipes still carried mud sediment. Saharia was struck by fear every time she used the contaminated water, but she had no other choice. For drinking and cooking, she sometimes asked for clean water from a neighbour who has a well.  

“I’m worried about my family’s health. Our bodies get itchy after having a shower. We really miss the old days when the water was clean,” she said.

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Nickel Mining is Getting Under the Skin of Locals

Ristan has been sleep-deprived lately. The 24-year-old mother wakes up almost every night because her beloved baby also is also having difficulty sleeping. Abyan, Ristan’s nine-month-old son, has been suffering from itchy skin for the past four months. Reddish spots first appeared on his calf and ankle, and then spread to the toes and soles of his feet.

“It’s actually getting better lately. Before this, my baby’s feet were full of wounds. Very unsightly,” said Ristan while showing me Abyan’s rough skin. 

Skin disease also struck Ristan, her husband, and her parents. Nahati, Ristan’s mother, had very itchy black spots all over her body a while ago. Almost all residents of Mosolo, Sinar Mosolo, and Sinaulu Jaya Villages have experienced similar ailments. 

“The reddish spots felt itchy at first, and when we started to scratch they’d turn hot or even bleeding. I tried to treat it by drinking a herbal decoction,” Nahati said.

The water consumed by Ristan’s family comes from a source approximately 500 metres from a nickel mining site. 

Sixty-five-year-old Nahati has resided in Mosolo since she was 5, but she only experienced the skin condition recently. The water used to turn murky after days of heavy rain. Today, however, the water changes colour after even the briefest rain shower. 

Another Mosolo resident, Tika, also complained of itching. An, her one-year-old infant, was no different. The skin on his toes peeled off, and there were black scars on his legs. The mother and son ended up seeing a doctor in the city of Kendari last August. 

“The doctor said there wasn’t any problem with the food we eat. He just said it might be due to the weather,” Tika said, adding that her family solely relied on spring water.

 Wa Muita lives in Sinaulu Jaya Village with her five family members, three of whom are women. She has had skin ailments for the past year – ever since a nickel mine started operating nearby. She has tried a variety of medications to no avail. The water she uses for the household’s needs has been getting murky recently, and it gets darker anytime it rains. 

“I have used a lot of medications, yet the itching persists. Perhaps it’s due to the polluted water we regularly consume. There’s no doubt that we are angry. It’s never been like this before”.

 

Left: Abyan’s skin is red and itchy. The nine-month-old baby boy has suffered from the skin disease for around four months since the water his family used was allegedly contaminated with mud from nickel mining. Right: A Sinaulu Jaya resident shows her skin rash. Photos: Yuli Z./Project Multatuli

Jumriati, a 24-year-old resident of Sinaulu Jaya, said she was worried about her family’s health due to their regular consumption of the polluted water.

“I hope the government will pay attention to our complaints and not let the community be affected by mining’s destructive impacts. The company is profiting at the expense of our lives,” she said.

Lahadi, a caretaker of the water reservoir in Sinaulu Jaya, confirmed that the water quality had deteriorated since the nickel mining company started excavating land in 2020.

“We cannot be sure whether the pollution is due to the company’s activities. But one thing’s for sure, every time it rains for at least a day, the spring brings lumps of mud into the reservoir,” said Lahadi. “I’m not making up stories. You can ask anyone living near the mining site; the ecosystem has been disrupted.”

A local environmental official in the Konawe Islands, Hasnawati, denied claims that the water in Sinaulu Jaya had been polluted. Water consumed by the community still met the quality standards set by the Environment and Forestry Ministry, she said in a statement, adding that tests had been carried out on the Pamsimas Sukarela Jaya and Pamsimas Dompo-Dompo Jaya Springs.

“The water sample was examined in an accredited laboratory (in Kolaka Regency), and the result shows that the water meets the regulatory standards of the Environment and Forestry Ministry,” she said.

However, she did not provide the test results before this article was completed. “Those are kept  by my staff,” said Hasnawati.

Muhammad Jamil, an activist with the environmental group Mining Advocacy Network (JATAM), said skin ailments were common in nickel mining areas. Similar diseases could also be found in the Pomalaa District of Kolaka Regency and Tinanggea District in South Konawe Regency. 

“As far as I know, the problem has been studied by a number of universities,” he said.

Research conducted by La Maga, Ahyar Ismail, and Faroby Falatehan from IPB University in Bogor (2017) found that Tinanggea residents experienced skin disease after using water contaminated by material from nickel mining sites. In addition to the skin conditions, residents also suffered from respiratory problems, as they were exposed to dust raised up by the mining. Such air pollution affected those within a three-kilometre radius of nickel mining sites, the study found.

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Defending the Land

“I was devastated watching the clove trees being ripped down. It was like seeing your own children murdered,” said Wa Muita, a 43-year-old resident of Sinaulu Jaya, as she recalled the events of August 10, 2023.

A day before, residents received reports that their plantations on Mosolo hill, two hours away from their settlement, had been cleared by PT Gema Kreasi Perdana. Amiri, Wa Muita’s husband, rushed to check his plantation in the middle of the night and found that 40 of his clove trees had been toppled. Apart from that, the corporation also tore down dozens of pepper trees and cashew trees that were about to bear fruit. 

Wa Muita and some 20 other farmers came by the next day. They were saddened to see the 18-year-old clove trees that had long been the source of their livelihood destroyed just like that.

“I was speechless, tears streaming down my face,” said Wa Muita.

Shortly after, hundreds of residents gathered at the plantation area. They confronted the company for trespassing, but the company claimed that it had acquired the land through other parties. Wa Muita and Amiri stressed that they had never sold their land, let alone received money from the supposed transaction. The situation quickly spiralled out of hand as members of both conflicting parties threatened each other – some with sharp weapons.

“Every time I go to the farm, I always talk to the clove trees. ‘Please bear fruit soon. We care for you like our own children. And you are the ones paying for your siblings’ school fees’,” she said. 

Wa Muita has two children who are attending college; another one is in high school, and the youngest of all is in elementary school. Their tuition fees have been covered by the sale of cloves. In 2019, the family harvested a ton of cloves. The price of one kilogram of cloves in Southeast Wawonii is roughly Rp 130,000. The 40 clove trees uprooted by PT Gema Kreasi Perdana were immensely precious to Wa Muita.

Despite everything the company had put her through, Wa Muita only asked PT Gema Kreasi Perdana to stop clearing the land.  

“We accept what they’ve done to us and hope the company still has some conscience. We have further requested the person who sold the land without our authorization to refund the company’s money”.

“Without this land we don’t know what to do. This is our sole source of income,” she emphasised.

Despite encountering such fierce rejection, the company has continued to clear residents’ land, said Wa Muita, forcing her and other farmers to maintain guard of their respective fields for months.

“We didn’t even have time to take care of ourselves from February to May. We did not shower, and only ate whatever was available”.

 

 

Before the trespassing incident, Wa Muita visited her field twice a week. Now she’s forced to go there more often to guard her land.

I don’t know what to say. I feel devastated. Why are there such evil people? We desperately care for the land, and they come and violate it just like that.. On top of that, they have also threatened to evict us. I hope the media, or anybody really, can help us to stop the destruction of our mother nature. —Wa Muita

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Pitted Against Each Other

Not only does has mining had environmental impacts, it’s also triggered family conflicts: parents and children have come to despise each other; siblings have become enemies; and partners have split up.

For instance, Sanawiahas been estranged from her parents for over three years. The family conflict started when one of Sanawia’s brothers, with their father’s permission, sold their parents’ land in 2019. 

The land sale was sealed as Sanawia protested against the mining at the Konawe Islands Council Office. It was only while on her way back home that Sanawia heard her parents’ land had been sold to the mining company.

“I could only cry. The company quickly cleared the land. Since then I haven’t been to visit my parents,” said the 45-year-old woman who has four siblings, three of whom support the mining activities. Sanawia said that, among her siblings, she used to be the closest to her parents — but not anymore.

She did not know exactly how much of her parents’ land was being sold. What she knows is that the field could usually produce 3,000 coconuts each harvest season. The mother of two wants to fix her relationship with her parents and siblings, but only under one condition. “Our relationship can be repaired as soon as the mining operation stops,” Sanawia insisted.

Aba, not his real name, said his daughter was abandoned by her husband while she was pregnant with their second child. His son-in-law had offered him money provided by the company in compensation for Aba’s land, which was used for PT Gema Kreasi Perdana’s haul roads.

Aba had previously been taken to the police station for defending his land. So he was enraged when his son-in-law made a deal with the company without his consent. He refused the money and demanded it be returned to the company.

When the couple was about to build a house, Aba’s son-in-law asked his wife to take out a loan, but she refused. That was when the son-in-law brought up Aba’s refusal to accept compensation from the mining company. The quarrel escalated into domestic violence.

“One night, my daughter came to me, crying. Her right eye was bruised. I tried to reconcile the couple, and they did get back together. But, after a few days, when my daughter was looking for mussels in the sea, her husband ran away and has not yet returned,” Aba explained.

Now, his daughter and two grandchildren live with him. “I will never accept the company’s money. I’m already old, it’s true, but I’m thinking about the future of my grandchildren,” Aba stated.

Both Sanawia and Aba reside in Roko-Roko, and in this village, social divisions caused by the mining company are no longer a secret. A number of people I met expressed reluctance to engage with anybody from the opposing ‘camp’.

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A Legal Battle against Mining Activities

Wawonii Island, which covers an area of 706 square kilometres is categorised as a small island, based on Law No. 27/2007 on the Protection of Coastal Areas and Small Islands. Thus, as mandated by the law, mining activities cannot be carried out on the island. 

Several civil society groups noted that at least 2,214 people living in the villages of Dompo-Dompo Jaya, Sukarela Jaya, Roko-Roko, Bahaba, and Teporoko were affected by PT Gema Kreasi Perdana’s nickel mining. For the record, PT Gema Kreasi Perdana obtained a nickel mining permit in 2007. By the end of 2019, the subsidiary of Harita Group secured a mining operation permit (IUP) on an area of 850.9 hectares, around 83 percent of which was forest area lent by the state under a forest area utilisation permit (IPPKH) scheme. It was also granted permission to build a port in the Wawonii Strait. 

The development, according to a coalition of civil society groups, has harmed the aquatic ecosystem, including mangroves and coral reefs, on and around Wawonii Island. The murky water resulting from mining activities has made it difficult for fishermen to catch fish. The port also keeps fish away from the shoreline. The thick dust generated by the transportation of nickel ore has also damaged residents’ respiratory systems, the coalition emphasised.

Even though the law prohibits mining on the small island, the local government has issued a regional planning regulation (Perda No. 2/2021) that covers the Konawe Islands and carves out an exemption for mining on Wawonii.

Wawonii residents, represented by the Denny Indrayana Law Firm, have filed a judicial review of the regulation. On December 22, 2022, the Supreme Court granted their request.

Through decision No. 57 P/HUM/2022, the Supreme Court states that Wawonii Island is a “small island… which is vulnerable and very limited, therefore requires special protection. All activities that are not intended to support the ecosystem… including but not limited to mining are categorised as abnormally dangerous activities… which must be prohibited… as they will threaten the lives of all living creatures on the island”.

The Supreme Court also mentions that the special planning regulation “…ignores the wishes of the community as conveyed by a huge demonstration on March 6, 2019, against the mining activities”. The court further ordered the Konawe Islands Regent, as well as the Regional Legislative Council, to revise the regulation.

 

However, president director of PT Gema Kreasi Perdana Rasnius Pasaribu, through his attorney Asmansyah & Partners, submitted a judicial review to the Constitutional Court to challenge a number of articles in the law about the protection of coastal areas and small islands. The articles, number 23 paragraph 2 and 25 letter k, ban mineral mining activities in such areas.

The company’s lawyer argued that the Supreme Court interpreted the two articles as an “unconditional prohibition” on mineral activities in areas classified as small islands, despite the fact that the company “possesses a valid permit” and is therefore “threatened to cease its activities and potentially suffer constitutional and economic losses”.

The company said it had invested a total of Rp 37.5 billion and 77,300 US dollars since 2007, in addition to distributing more than Rp 70 billion in compensation for 568 hectares of land affected by mining activities.

The application was submitted on March 28, 2023, and the Constitutional Court arranged several hearings in May, August, and September. The next stage is the verdict hearing. 

Civil society groups have called on the Constitutional Court to reject the judicial review in order to safeguard small islands from the grip of a destructive mining industry.

“If the judicial review is granted, mining activities will be legalised in all coastal areas and small islands in Indonesia, not only on Wawonii Island,” Wildan Siregar from environment watchdog Trend Asia warned. “Both ecological damage and social conflicts due to mining will become far more widespread” he added.

 

 

While the company filed a judicial review at the Constitutional Court, the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Council officially removed the allocation of land for mining on Wawonii Island. The Regional Regulation Draft (Raperda) concerning the 2023-2043 Spatial Planning of Southeast Sulawesi designates Wawonii Island as an integrated fishery region.

Fajar Ishak, head of the Council’s special committee (Pansus) on the Spatial Planning bill, explained that revocation of land for mining in the Konawe Islands Regency was eliminated to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision.

“The Supreme Court’s decision was issued towards the end of 2022 (and became effective this year). Therefore, we cannot ignore it. As a consequence, we decided to declare Wawonii Island as an integrated fishery area. There will be no more mining there,” said Fajar on August 29,2023.

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“This is a False Allegation”

PT Gema Kreasi Perdana spokesperson Alexander Lieman denied the accusations that the company had caused environmental damage. According to him, the company has taken preventive measures to prevent air pollution such as routinely monitoring the air quality and regularly watering the roads. 

“We are taking such measures as part of our commitment to protect the environment, especially Wawonii Island,” said Lieman. “In fact, we even provided compensation for residents whose plantations were affected by mining activities.”

Regarding the murky water, Lieman claimed the water on Wawonii Island had always been like that, even before the company commenced its operations. He noted that every time it rained, the water turned dark.

“Our mining activities do not pollute the river (…) We strongly reject these baseless accusations. You can validate this with the local administration as well as the Environmental Agency”.

 

 

Lieman said the corporation actually helped the communities to access clean water by dispatching water trucks to villages, setting up a special team to find alternative sources of clean water, digging wells, and cleaning the communities’ water tanks.

“The river is clear again, and the residents can easily access clean water for their daily needs”.

Lieman’s statement does not correspond to the facts on the ground. The water flowing in Dompo-Dompo Jaya, Sukarela Jaya, and Roko-Roko villages continues to carry mud. The water was still dark by August 18, 2023, even though there had not been heavy rain for quite some time.

 

“Hewan pun membutuhkan air. Kalau tidak ada air, mati konyol kita,” Ratna merutuk.

Ratna kesal. Pipa yang saban hari mengalirkan air bersih ke rumahnya kini membawa sedimentasi lumpur. Ratna meyakini lumpur itu mengandung tanah bekas galian nikel PT Gema Kreasi Perdana, anak perusahaan Harita Group, pemilik tunggal izin konsesi di Pulau Wawonii, Kabupaten Konawe Kepulauan. Sebab, air yang digunakan selama ini tak pernah sekeruh itu walau di musim hujan.

Ratna menangis. Hatinya teriris. Ia marah bercampur kecewa. Marah kepada perusahaan yang dianggapnya semena-mena. Kecewa kepada siapa saja yang mendukung beroperasinya perusahaan tambang di pulau yang luasnya hanya 706 km² itu.

Hari-hari berikutnya, Ratna harus menunggu berjam-jam hingga air cukup jernih agar bisa digunakan mandi dan mencuci pakaian dan perabotan dapur. Untuk keperluan memasak, Ratna terpaksa membeli air yang harganya Rp8.000 per galon. Kondisi air belum pulih saat Wawonii Tenggara kembali diguyur hujan pada 21 Mei 2023, menyebabkan sumber mata air kian keruh.

Beberapa jam setelahnya, pipa yang mengalirkan air dari satu-satunya bak penampungan yang digunakan warga selama ini terputus. Warga menduga ada “oknum” yang sengaja memutus pipa agar masalah air tercemar tidak tersebar luas.

Ratna sudah menduga hal ini jauh sebelumnya. Tak heran ia mati-matian menolak masuknya tambang.

“Kata mereka yang jual lahan, aktivitas tambang tidak ada dampaknya. Sekarang sama-sama kita cari air bersih. Mereka dikasih bodo-bodo perusahaan.”

“Hancur kami di sini,” suaranya meninggi.

Ibu dua anak ini sudah 58 tahun menetap di Desa Sukarela Jaya, Kecamatan Wawonii Tenggara. Sejak lahir, berumah tangga, dan sekarang memiliki cucu. Walau hidupnya tak berjalan mulus-mulus saja, ia masih mampu memenuhi kebutuhan hidup dan bertahan sampai hari ini. Apalagi sekadar mendapatkan air bersih.

“Kami perjuangkan pulau ini karena di sini kami lahir. Di sini tumpah darah kami.”

Pulau Wawonii telah menyediakan segala yang dibutuhkan. Tanaman jambu mete, pala, cengkih, dan kelapa, cukup untuk menopang hidupnya. Ratna tak pernah tergiur lahannya ditawari uang ratusan juta rupiah. Uang dari perusahaan bisa habis dalam sekejap, katanya, tapi hasil perkebunan bisa dinikmati terus-menerus.

“Setahun hasil pala bisa berton-ton. Kita dibilang tolak rezeki. Lantas, ini bukan rezeki?”

Lagi pula, tanpa hadirnya tambang, Ratna merasakan hidupnya telah berkecukupan. Hasil perkebunan memungkinkannya menabung dan membeli berbagai keperluan hidup. Hasil kebun itu juga telah membawanya umrah pada awal tahun 2023.

“Biar tidak ada uang, kita masih bisa makan. Kita punya pemikiran jangan cuma sejengkal. Harus berpikir jauh ke depan. Kita punya anak cucu.”

Ratna beranjak ke halaman rumah. Di sana, biji dan bunga pala dijemur di bawah terik matahari. Ditatapnya biji-biji pala yang tak lama lagi menjadi rupiah.

Ratna berkata telah bosan menyampaikan keresahan hatinya. Suaranya hanya dianggap angin lalu oleh para pengambil kebijakan. Padahal, tambahnya, “perempuan yang dirugikan karena kami memasak dan mengurus dapur.”

Di tengah berbagai penolakan dan gejolak yang terjadi, eksavator perusahaan terus menggunduli lahan dan mengeruk tanahnya. Kendaraan-kendaraan pengangkut ore nikel tetap lalu lalang menuju pelabuhan, yang letaknya hanya 200-an meter dari rumahnya.

Ratna bertekad tak akan menyalurkan hak pilihnya pada pemilu di tingkat lokal nanti. Ia kadung kecewa. Merasa ditinggalkan anggota dewan yang seharusnya menjadi penyambung suaranya. Merasa tak dipedulikan kepala daerahnya.

“Saya akan golput. Hanya suara kami yang dibutuhkan. Kita demo di DPR, diusir seperti binatang. Dibentak-bentak. Kita demo di Kendari, dihantam dengan gas air mata. Saya hampir mati karena sesak napas.”

“Katanya, mendatangkan investor untuk kesejahteraan, tapi malah menyengsarakan. Mematikan secara halus.”

“Sekarang tidak ada keadilan. Tidak ada perikemanusiaan. Kayak penjajahan Belanda kita dibikin. Penjajahnya negara sendiri.”

Bersembunyi di Hutan

Pukul 6 pagi pada pertengahan Mei 2023 di Desa Sukarela Jaya, Hastati sibuk membelah buah kelapa tua untuk dijadikan kopra. Totalnya 1.000 buah. Sebagian kelapa itu milik sendiri yang baru saja dipanen, sebagian lain dibeli dari warga sekitar. Saat itu harga kopra putih Rp7.500/kg dan kopra hitam Rp6.500/kg. Dalam satu kali panen, setiap tiga bulan, kelapa yang dihasilkan biasanya mencapai 3.000 buah. Selain daging kelapa, Hastati mendapatkan keuntungan ekonomi dari tempurung kelapa yang dibakar menjadi arang.

Hastati, 45 tahun, adalah ibu enam anak. Seperti warga lain yang menolak tambang, Hastati merasa sudah cukup atas hasil perkebunannya. Ia berkata pernah ditawari uang Rp1 miliar agar mau melepas tanah seluas 2 ha warisan orang tua. Ia juga bercerita ditawari umrah gratis berkali-kali, bantuan biaya pendidikan untuk anak-anaknya, dan pernah diajak bekerja di tambang.

“Tapi saya tolak. Kita mau mempertahankan lahan dan Pulau Wawonii. Lebih baik kita berdikari begini.”

Uang dari perusahaan, katanya, bisa habis dalam sekejap. Namun, lahan yang dimilikinya, selama tidak dirusak, bisa memberikan kehidupan hingga generasi mendatang.

“Kalau sudah habis gunung, perusahaan pulang. Sedangkan kita?”

Di lahannya tumbuh pala, cengkih, dan jambu mete. Baru setahun terakhir Hastati mulai membuat kopra. Pohon pala dan cengkih baru belajar berbuah. Tahun lalu, ia memanen 50 kg cengkih. Sementara pala sekali panen rata-rata 5 kg. Jambu mete menjadi tanaman andalannya. Setahun bisa menghasilkan 3-4 ton.

Hastati tinggal bersama suami dan empat anak dan seorang cucu. Sulitnya mendapatkan air bersih menghantam seluruh kehidupannya, tak cuma mempengaruhi ekonomi rumah tangga. Hastati tak pernah menyangka akan melalui fase ini. Sejak dulu, ia tak pernah kesulitan mendapatkan air bersih. Sumur di Roko-Roko rata-rata sudah ditutup lebih dari satu dekade sejak air dari mata air Banda mengalir lancar ke kampung.

“Dulu kita senang air mengalir ke rumah. Sekarang harus ke sungai untuk mencuci. Bagaimana kita tidak mau marah?”

Sebagai bentuk penolakan tambang, Hastati menolak menerima bantuan air dari perusahaan. Ini bukan hanya tentang air. Ini tentang prinsip, katanya. “Sekarang terpaksa pakai air kali untuk memasak.”

Hastati tak pernah lupa kejadian tahun 2022. Saat itu ia bersama ibu-ibu lain nekat melepas baju dalam aksi menolak tambang nikel. Ia juga pernah bersembunyi di hutan selama nyaris  dua bulan. Ia takut ditangkap lantaran dianggap menghalangi pertambangan.

“Saya jengkel kepada perusahaan. Kita mempertahankan lahan malah dicari-cari polisi. Padahal kita tidak membunuh atau mencuri.”

 

Hastati bersembunyi di hutan bersama delapan warga lain. Di antara mereka ada Amlia yang menolak menjual lahannya untuk dijadikan jalan hauling atau jalan akses kegiatan pertambangan.

Saya menemui Amlia di kebunnya pada 20 Mei 2023. Ia berkisah bersembunyi di hutan lantaran takut ditahan polisi setelah menerima surat panggilan sebagai “saksi” oleh Kepolisian Resor Konawe Kepulauan.

“Kalau tidak dikasih lahannya, kita tidak dilepas di kantor polisi. Yang dipanggil ke polisi yang punya lahan. Kita bingung kenapa dipanggil. Lebih baik kita lari. Tidak usah kita hadiri panggilan polisi itu.”

Selama persembunyian itu, mereka melewati hari-hari cukup berat. Siang berpencar di hutan, malam mencari gubuk untuk berlindung. Dalam sehari, kadang tidak makan apa pun. Pernah mereka terpaksa makan singkong rebus basi.

“Biarpun makan, kita tidak rasa makan. Begitu juga kita duduk. Tidak tenang. Mau tenang bagaimana? Kita lari hampir dua bulan. Kita dicari-cari petugas polisi,” tutur Amlia.

Amlia juga pernah diiming-imingi gaji untuk anak pertama dan suaminya tanpa perlu bekerja oleh pihak perusahaan.

“Saya ditawari terserah mau berapa. Kalau mau, anak dikasih kuliah sambil kerja di kantor. Bapak dapat gaji biar tidak kerja. Anak yang paling tua juga dapat gaji biar tidak kerja.”

Tak jauh dari gubuknya, tumbuh pohon singkong berusia dua bulan dan tanaman lain seperti cabai, pisang, dan kelapa. Hujan deras beberapa hari sebelumnya menyebabkan sebagian lahan itu terendam air yang membawa sedimentasi lumpur merah setinggi pinggang orang dewasa. Amlia menduga tanah merah itu mengandung bekas galian nikel.

Kini Amlia dan suaminya harus berjalan kaki sejauh 2 km dari tempat memarkir sepeda motor mereka setiap kali ke kebun. Rute yang biasa dilalui telah menjadi jalan hauling PT Gema Kreasi Perdana. Saat masih bisa menggunakan sepeda motor, mereka biasanya ke kebun pukul 8 pagi. Sekarang paling telat berangkat pukul 6.30. Dari semula hanya setengah jam naik motor, sekarang mereka harus berjalan kaki selama dua jam untuk tiba di kebun.

Hasil panen pun dipikul dengan berjalan kaki melewati jalanan berbukit. Saat musim panen jambu, Amlia dan suaminya terpaksa mengangkut jambu seberat 20-30 kg dengan berjalan kaki.

“Walau sulit, kita berusaha tembus. Namanya petani. Pendapatan kita dari berkebun,” kata Amlia, yang membopong singkong seberat 20 kg dari kebun menuju parkiran motor sejauh 2 km dengan berjalan kaki.

 

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Merusak Mata Air

Saharia, warga Desa Dompo-Dompo Jaya, seperti biasa bangun pagi hari untuk menyiapkan sarapan. Saat memutar keran untuk mencuci ikan, air yang keluar berwarna oranye. Ia terpaksa memasak dan mencuci bahan makanan menggunakan air hujan yang ditampung dari atap rumah beberapa hari sebelumnya.

Saharia, 50 tahun, adalah ibu tunggal empat anak. Keluarga ini memiliki kebun seluas 250 m² yang ditanami kelapa, jambu mete, pala, dan cengkih. Saharia mengolah kelapa yang buahnya dijadikan kopra dan tempurungnya dijadikan arang, dibantu ketiga anaknya. Salah satu anaknya saat ini mencari nafkah di perantauan.

Saat ini Saharia cemas kebun mereka bisa diserobot sewaktu-waktu oleh perusahaan.

PT Gema Kreasi Perdana, anak usaha Harita Group, melakukan produksi dan pengapalan ore nikel pada Agustus 2022. Lokasi penggalian korporasi berada di beberapa desa di Kecamatan Wawonii Tenggara, yang diduga telah mencemari sumber mata air. Pamsimas (program penyediaan air minum dan sanitasi berbasis masyarakat) Sukarela Jaya dan Pamsimas Dompo-Dompo Jaya, keduanya menyuplai air bersih untuk dua desa tersebut, mengalirkan air berlumpur sejak hujan deras pada 9 Mei 2023.

 

Pada 19 Mei 2023, saya mendatangi mata air Banda di hutan Wawonii Tenggara, sekitar satu jam berjalan kaki dari Desa Dompo-Dompo Jaya. Mata air di dalam gua karst dengan ketinggian 119 mdpl ini mengalir ke beberapa anak sungai sebagai sumber pengairan kebun dan pertanian warga.

Pada 21 Mei, Wawonii Tenggara kembali diguyur hujan. Kawasan perairan di Desa Sukarela Jaya, Dompo-Dompo Jaya, dan Roko-Roko berubah warna cukup pekat. Di tengah hujan, warga yang tinggal di tepian laut membersihkan selokan, menghalau material lumpur yang terbawa air hujan. Menurut warga setempat, perubahan warna air laut kerap terjadi saat hujan, tapi tidak separah itu.

Saya memeriksa pipa di rumah warga. Airnya cokelat pekat. Tak sampai dua jam setelah hujan berhenti, aliran air di rumah-rumah warga terhenti. Dalam perjalanan, saya bertemu seorang wanita yang membawa bundel cucian di atas sepeda motor. Ia berteriak, “Saya mau pergi bilas cucian.” Perempuan lain menimpali, “Air ini sudah tidak ada gunanya.”

Saya mendatangi lokasi pertemuan sungai Roko-Roko dan Tambusiu-siu yang mengalirkan mata air Banda. Gradasi warna mencolok antara keduanya. Sungai Roko-Roko hanya sedikit keruh, sedangkan Tambusiu-siu berwarna kecokelatan. Sungai Roko-Roko adalah satu-satunya yang tidak tercemar dan masih digunakan warga Desa Roko-Roko, Sukarela Jaya, dan desa sekitar untuk keperluan mandi, mencuci, dan memasak. Perusahaan membagikan air bersih tapi sebagian warga menolak sebagai sikap penolakan atas aktivitas tambang di Wawonii.

 

Saharia termasuk warga yang menolak tambang. Sebagai ibu tunggal, ia mengemban peran ganda mengurusi rumah dan mencari nafkah. Ia harus ke sungai berjarak 500 meter untuk mendapatkan air bersih, selain mengandalkan air hujan. Ia dan keluarganya terpaksa mengurangi frekuensi mandi karena merasa tak nyaman menggunakan air kotor. Belum lagi anggota keluarga perempuan yang setiap bulan harus melalui fase menstruasi. Di rumahnya, ada tiga perempuan.

“Kita pusing tidak ada air begini,” keluhnya. “Pada masa-masa datang bulan itu berat sekali. Karena harus sering bersih-bersih. Sekarang mau apa? Kita tahan-tahan mi.”

Sampai pertengahan Agustus 2023, air bersih belum juga pulih. Padahal sudah memasuki musim kemarau. Walau tak begitu keruh, air masih berlumpur. Selain itu, saluran air kerap kali macet. Sejak terputus pada Mei, air kembali mengalir pada awal Agustus.

Perasaan takut menghantui Saharia setiap kali menggunakan air yang diduga kuat tercemar itu. Tapi tak ada pilihan lain. Untuk kebutuhan minum, ia kadang mengambil air di sumur warga lain yang berjarak 100 meter dari rumahnya, dengan menggunakan gerobak pasir untuk mengangkut air.

“Saya khawatir soal kesehatan. Biasanya habis mandi kita gatal-gatal. Tapi mau bagaimana lagi? Kita butuh mandi. Saya rindu kehidupan yang dulu,” katanya.

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Diserang Gatal-Gatal

Sudah lama tidur Ristan tak nyenyak. Nyaris setiap malam ibu muda berumur 24 ini terbangun dan menyaksikan bayi kesayangannya kesulitan tidur. Abyan, anak lelakinya, diserang gatal-gatal sejak berusia lima bulan. Mulanya pada area betis dan pergelangan kaki muncul bintik-bintik kecil, lambat laun menyebar hingga ke jari dan telapak kaki. Sekarang usia Abyan sembilan bulan.

“Ini sudah lumayan membaik. Awalnya parah sekali. Penuh luka. Jorok,” ujar Ristan memperlihatkan kaki Abyan seperti parutan.

Penyakit itu juga menyerang Ristan, suaminya, dan kedua orang tuanya. Tubuh Nahati, ibu Ristan, berbintik hitam dan terasa gatal sekitar enam bulan lalu. Penyakit ini dialami hampir semua warga di tiga desa meliputi Mosolo, Sinar Mosolo, dan Sinaulu Jaya.

“Awalnya gatal di semua badan. Saat digaruk terasa panas. Bahkan sampai berdarah. Saya pusing. Kadang digaruk pakai sikat. Saya obati dengan meminum rebusan daun,” kata Nahati.

Sumber air yang digunakan Ristan sekeluarga berjarak kurang lebih 500 meter dari lokasi penambangan nikel.

Nahati bermukim di Mosolo sejak umur lima tahun. Sepanjang usianya yang sekarang 65 tahun, ia berkata belum pernah mengalami penyakit gatal-gatal seperti saat ini. Dulu, air menjadi keruh hanya jika hujan deras berhari-hari. Tak seperti sekarang. Air berubah warna walau hujan sebentar. Kini keluarga ini terpaksa menggunakan air kotor. Tak ada sumber air lain. Agar bisa digunakan, air harus didiamkan sampai cukup jernih.

Di Desa Mosolo, nasib Tika pun sama. Ibu dua anak berusia 24 tahun ini mengeluhkan gatal-gatal. Kondisi tubuh An, anak Tika berusia 1 tahun, mirip dengan Abyan. Kulit jari-jari kakinya terkelupas. Pada punggung kaki ada bekas luka-luka berbentuk melingkar kehitaman. Awal Agustus 2023, Tika memeriksakan diri dan anaknya ke dokter di Kota Kendari.

“Kata dokter, tidak ada masalah dengan susunya. Hanya dibilang mungkin pengaruh cuaca. Semua keponakan juga gatal-gatal. Saya sendiri gatal-gatal sejak bulan lalu.”

“Kita tidak pakai sumur bor. Hanya mengharapkan air dari mata air,” kata Tika.

Di Desa Sinaulu Jaya, Wa Muita tinggal bersama lima anggota keluarga, tiga di antaranya perempuan. Ia mengalami gatal-gatal dalam setahun terakhir. Ini rentang saat perusahaan tambang melakukan penggalian nikel. Penyakit gatal-gatal yang dideritanya tak kunjung sembuh, sementara kebutuhan air rumah tangga pun berwarna cokelat saat hujan deras pada Mei 2023.

“Kita pakai mandi, mencuci, memasak. Pokoknya kebutuhan sehari-hari. Di sini sungainya jauh. Kalau musim hujan, pasti merah juga.”

Wa Muita menderita gatal-gatal di beberapa bagian tubuhnya. Ia telah mencoba berbagai obat salep. Pernah berobat di puskesmas dan diberikan obat. Tak ada perubahan.

“Sudah berapa tablet kita minum, masih gatal-gatal. Mungkin karena air yang dipakai masih kotor. Jelas kita marah. Sebelumnya tidak pernah begini.”

“Awalnya muncul bintik-bintik merah. Kalau digaruk semakin gatal. Kita garuk sampai berdarah. Bahkan celana dalam kita berdarah-darah.”

 

Kiri: Kaki Abyan, bayi di Desa Sinaulu Jaya, yang menderita gatal-gatal sejak usia lima bulan. 
Kanan: Lengan penderita gatal-gatal di Desa Sinaulu Jaya. Photos: Yuli Z./Project Multatuli

Jumriati, warga Sinaulu Jaya berusia 24 tahun, khawatir sistem reproduksinya terganggu. Selain itu ia takut jika pertumbuhan anaknya berusia tiga tahun terganggu akibat terus-terusan mengonsumsi air tidak layak pakai.

“Harapannya, pemerintah bisa perhatikan keluhan kita di sini. Perhatikan masyarakatnya. Jangan biarkan masyarakat terdampak pencemaran tambang. Mereka raup keuntungan tapi kehidupan kami dikorbankan.”

Lahadi, penjaga penampungan air warga Sinaulu Jaya, membenarkan air mulai keruh dan kemerahan sejak perusahaan mengebor pada 2020. “Kita tidak bisa mendeteksi apakah pencemaran itu akibat aktivitas perusahaan atau bukan. Akan tetapi, ketika hujan selama satu hari, mata air mengalirkan gumpalan lumpur ke tempat penampungan,” katanya.

“Kita bicara begini bukan mengarang. Ada yang punya lahan di situ dan dia tahu persis bahwa lahan di sekitar itu telah dieksploitasi.”

Terkait dugaan pencemaran air, Kepala Bidang Penataan Peningkatan Kapasitas Lingkungan Dinas Lingkungan Hidup Konawe Kepulauan, Hasnawati mengatakan air yang digunakan warga Roko-Roko masih sesuai baku mutu berdasarkan Peraturan Menteri Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan. Pengujian dilakukan pada mata air Pamsimas Sukarela Jaya dan Pamsimas Dompo-Dompo Jaya.

“Untuk hasil lab yang kami lakukan dan diperiksa di laboratorium terakreditasi (laboratorium Kabupaten Kolaka), hasilnya masih sesuai baku mutu sesuai Permen LHK. Untuk sungai Mosolo, kami pantau sebagai bahan laporan ke KLHK,” katanya.

Hasnawati belum memperlihatkan hasil uji lab tersebut sampai artikel ini dirilis. “Ada sama staf saya,” katanya.

Muhammad Jamil dari Jaringan Advokasi Tambang (JATAM), organisasi masyarakat sipil yang melakukan riset tentang gurita bisnis tambang nikel Harita Group, induk PT Gema Kreasi Perdana, berkata kasus gatal-gatal dan penyakit kulit lainnya umum ditemukan di daerah tambang nikel. Di Sulawesi Tenggara, hal sama terjadi di Kecamatan Pomalaa, Kabupaten Kolaka, dan Kecamatan Tinanggea, Kabupaten Konawe Selatan.

“Setahu kami hal itu sudah diriset oleh kampus,” kata Jamil.

Penelitian La Maga, Ahyar Ismail, dan Faroby Falatehan dari Institut Pertanian Bogor (2017) di Tinanggea menemukan warga setempat menderita penyakit kulit akibat menggunakan air bercampur material tanah dari lokasi tambang nikel. Penyakit kulit umumnya diderita petani saat pengolahan lahan. Selain penyakit kulit, warga mengalami penyakit batuk akibat debu aktivitas penambangan maupun pengangkutan material nikel dari lokasi penambangan ke pelabuhan. Radius pencemaran udara ini sampai 3 km dari lokasi tambang nikel.

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Mempertahankan Lahan

“Perasaan saya hancur melihat pohon cengkih tumbang. Seperti melihat anak sendiri dibunuh,” kata Wa Muita, 43 tahun, warga Desa Sinaulu Jaya, mengenang peristiwa 10 Agustus 2023.

Sehari sebelumnya, warga desa menerima laporan bahwa kebun mereka yang terletak di bukit Mosolo, berjarak dua jam perjalanan, diterobos PT Gema Kreasi Perdana.

Sehari sebelumnya, Wa Muita dan suaminya, Amiri, menerima laporan bahwa kebun mereka yang berjarak dua jam perjalanan, diterobos pihak PT Gema Kreasi Perdana. Amiri bergegas mengecek kondisi kebun pada pukul 12 malam dan mendapati 40 pohon cengkih yang sedang berbuah telah rata tanah. Selain cengkih, perusahaan merobohkan 20 pohon merica yang baru belajar berbuah dan puluhan pohon jambu mete yang diperkirakan berbuah pada Oktober nanti. Saat ini harga merica Rp65 ribu/kg.

Wa Muita menyusul keesokan harinya pukul 6 pagi bersama 20-an warga. Mereka melihat pohon-pohon cengkih berumur 18 tahun yang sudah jadi tumpuan ekonomi keluarga itu hancur seketika.

“Saya kehabisan kata-kata. Cuma air mata yang keluar,” kata Wa Muita.

Tak lama kemudian, ratusan warga memenuhi kebun Wa Muita. Warga mempertanyakan alasan penerobosan lahan. Namun, perusahaan berdalih telah membeli lahan itu melalui orang lain. Wa Muita dan Amiri menegaskan tidak pernah menjual lahan apalagi menerima uang hasil penjualan lahan itu. Situasi menjadi tidak terkendali. Warga dan pihak perusahaan hampir saling menyerang dengan senjata tajam.

“Setiap ke kebun saya tidak pernah lupa berbicara ke cengkih, ‘Tolong berbuah. Kita rawat kalian seperti anak sendiri. Kalian yang biayai saudara yang sekolah,” tutur Wa Muita.

Wa Muita memiliki dua anak yang sedang kuliah; satu anak sekolah menengah atas; dan satu anak sekolah dasar. Biaya pendidikan empat anak itu bergantung pada cengkih. Pada 2019, hasil panen cengkih keluarga ini mencapai 1 ton. Harga pasar cengkih di Wawonii Tenggara saat ini Rp130 ribu/kg. Bagi Wa Muita, 40 pohon cengkih yang ditumbangkan itu sangat berharga.

Menahan diri dan berbesar hati, Wa Muita dan Amiri meminta PT Gema Kreasi Perdana tidak memperluas penyerobotan. Ada total 200 pohon cengkih di kebun mereka dan 120 pohon di antaranya telah berbuah.

“Kami ikhlas. Semoga perusahaan mau menyisakan sedikit hati nuraninya. Kami sudah meminta orang yang menjual lahan tanpa sepengetahuan kami untuk mengembalikan uang perusahaan.”

“Kami mau harap apa?  Mau cari lagi di mana? Tidak ada. Ini lahan kami satu-satunya. Gaji kami hanya dari kebun,” kata Wa Muita.

Wa Muita pernah mempertahankan lahannya dengan berjaga di kebun selama empat bulan.

“Kadang mandi empat hari sekali. Hanya harapkan air hujan selama berjaga dari bulan Februari sampai Mei. Makan apa adanya. Saya berjaga dengan suami dan orang Mosolo lainnya.”

“Kita berjaga terus jangan sampai ada penerobosan. Ternyata, setelah kita turun dari kebun, pihak perusahaan lirik sudah tidak ada orang, perusahaan garap.”

 

Sebelum kehadiran tambang nikel, Wa Muita biasanya ke kebun dua kali seminggu. Kini ia terpaksa lebih sering ke kebun. Bergantian dengan warga lain untuk memantau situasi.

“Saya tidak tahu mau bilang apa. Ini sadis buat saya. Ngeri. Hancur perasaanku. Kenapa ada orang sejahat itu menerobos saya punya lahan? Mati-matian kita jaga, rawat, perjuangkan. Ujung-ujungnya diterobos. Setelah itu kita masih diancam juga mau digusur.”

“Saya berharap sama media atau siapa pun, tolong hentikan yang merusak ini.”

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“Kami Dibuat Terpecah Belah”

Belum cukup dengan dampak lingkungan yang ditimbulkan tambang nikel, warga dibuat terpecah belah. Konflik tak cuma antara warga dan korporasi, tetapi merasuk ke konflik keluarga: antar-tetangga saling bermusuhan; orang tua dan anak saling membenci; sesama saudara tak lagi saling menyapa; suami dan istri bahkan sampai bercerai.

Situasi itu dialami Sanawia yang sudah tiga tahun tak bertegur sapa dengan kedua orang tuanya. Konflik bermula saat salah satu saudara Sanawia menjual lahan warisan orang tua. Tindakan itu didukung sang ayah.

Tanah itu dijual saat Sanawia sedang demonstrasi menolak tambang di kantor DPRD Konawe Kepulauan pada 2019. Di perjalanan pulang, Sanawia mendengar kabar lahan orang tuanya telah dijual kakaknya.

“Saya hanya bisa menangis. Lahan yang dijual itu sudah diratakan. Sampai sekarang saya tidak pernah lagi ke rumah orang tua.”

Sanawia tak tahu pasti berapa luas lahan yang dijual, tapi kebun itu bisa menghasilkan 3.000 buah kelapa sekali panen.

Sanawia memiliki lima saudara, tiga di antaranya pendukung tambang. Saat orang tuanya sakit, ia enggan menjenguk. “Dulunya saya paling dekat dengan orang tua, sekarang tidak lagi.”

Ibu dua anak berusia 45 tahun ini ingin memperbaiki hubungan dengan orang tua dan saudara-saudaranya, tapi “hubungan kita bisa diperbaiki asalkan tambang pergi,” tambahnya.

Aba, bukan nama sebenarnya, pria paruh baya, menyaksikan kesedihan putrinya ditinggal suami saat mengandung anak kedua. Menantunya menawarkan uang dari perusahaan sebagai ganti rugi lahan milik Aba yang dijadikan jalan hauling PT Gema Kreasi Perdana. 

Aba pernah dibawa ke kantor polisi demi mempertahankan lahan. Karena itu, ia marah saat menantunya menyodorkan uang ganti rugi tanpa persetujuannya. Ia menolak uang tersebut dan minta dikembalikan ke perusahaan.

Saat hendak membangun rumah, si menantu meminta putri Aba mengutang. Putrinya menolak. Saat itulah si menantu mengungkit-ungkit soal uang ganti rugi lahan yang pernah ditolak Aba. Cekcok suami-istri ini berujung kekerasan dalam rumah tangga.

“Anak saya datang malam hari sambil menangis. Mata kanannya lebam. Saya berusaha mendamaikan. Sempat berbaikan. Tapi beberapa hari setelahnya, saat anak saya mencari kerang di laut, suaminya pergi dari rumah dan tidak pernah kembali sampai hari ini,” kata Aba.

Kini putri dan kedua cucunya tinggal bersamanya. “Saya tidak akan pernah menerima uang perusahaan. Saya memang sudah tua, tapi saya memikirkan masa depan cucu-cucu saya,” kata Aba.

Sanawia dan Aba adalah warga Desa Roko-Roko. Dan di desa ini, perpecahan warga akibat kehadiran tambang bukan rahasia lagi. Beberapa orang yang saya temui mengaku enggan bersosialisasi dengan siapa pun yang tidak sekubu, bahkan sekadar bertegur sapa.

“Situasi sosial di Wawonii Tenggara seperti api dalam sekam,” kata Erwin Suraya dari Koalisi Rakyat untuk Keadilan Perikanan (KIARA), dalam diskusi publik mengenai kehancuran ekosistem Pulau Wawonii, belum lama ini.

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Gugatan Hukum

Pulau Wawonii seluas 706 km² termasuk dalam kategori pulau-pulau kecil sesuai Undang-undang No. 27 Tahun 2007 tentang Perlindungan Wilayah Pesisir dan Pulau-Pulau Kecil. Pulau kecil adalah pulau dengan luas lebih kecil atau sama dengan 2.000 km². Dengan demikian, sebagaimana diamanatkan undang-undang tersebut, aktivitas pertambangan tidak boleh dilakukan di Pulau Wawonii.

Ada 2.214 jiwa penduduk yang tinggal di Desa Dompo-Dompo Jaya (441 jiwa), Sukarela Jaya (550 jiwa), Roko-Roko (582 jiwa), Bahaba (160 jiwa), dan Teporoko (481 jiwa) yang terdampak penambangan nikel PT Gema Kreasi Perdana, sebut kelompok masyarakat sipil terdiri atas Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia (YLBHI), JATAM, KIARA, Trend Asia, dan LBH Makassar.

PT Gema Kreasi Perdana mendapatkan izin eksplorasi bahan galian nikel dan mineral pengikut sejak 2007. Pada akhir tahun 2019, anak usaha Harita Group ini mengantongi izin usaha pertambangan (IUP) operasi produksi seluas 850,9 ha. Seluas 707,10 ha konsesi perusahaan merupakan izin pinjam pakai kawasan hutan (IPPKH). Perusahaan mendapatkan wilayah izin area proyek seluas 192,4 ha serta pembangunan terminal khusus di perairan Selat Wawonii seluas 13,3 ha.

Menurut kelompok masyarakat sipil, pengerukan tambang nikel hingga pembuatan dermaga untuk tambang dengan menimbun perairan di Wawonii telah merusak ekosistem mangrove, terumbu karang, dan perairan. Keruhnya sungai menyebabkan warga semakin sulit mendapatkan ikan. Dermaga perusahaan juga menyebabkan ikan menjauh. Aktivitas pengangkutan ore nikel yang menghasilkan debu tebal mengganggu pernapasan warga, sebut koalisi.

Koalisi menaksir korporasi telah melakukan pengapalan ore nikel lebih dari 100 kali untuk diolah di fasilitas pemurnian atau smelter milik Harita Group di Pulau Obi, Provinsi Maluku Utara. Harita Group, berkantor pusat di Jakarta, merupakan perusahaan raksasa di sektor sumber daya alam, mulai dari bisnis pertambangan nikel, bauksit, batu bara, perkebunan sawit, perkapalan, dan perkayuan. Perusahaan ini dimiliki keluarga Lim Hariyanto Wijaya Sarwono.

Sekalipun sudah dilindungi undang-undang, Peraturan Daerah No. 2 Tahun 2021 tentang RTRW Konawe Kepulauan 2021-2041 menetapkan alokasi ruang untuk kegiatan pertambangan di Konawe Kepulauan, Pulau Wawonii.

Warga Wawonii, yang diwakili firma hukum Denny Indrayana, mengajukan uji materiil perda tersebut. Pada 22 Desember 2022, Mahkamah Agung mengabulkan permohonan warga.

Dalam putusan No. 57 P/HUM/2022, Mahkamah Agung menyebutkan Pulau Wawonii merupakan “pulau kecil … yang rentan dan sangat terbatas sehingga membutuhkan perlindungan khusus. Segala kegiatan yang tidak ditujukan untuk menunjang kehidupan ekosistem … termasuk namun tidak terbatas pada kegiatan pertambangan dikategorikan sebagai abnormally dangerous activity … yang harus dilarang … karena akan mengancam kehidupan seluruh makhluk hidup.”

Mahkamah Agung juga menyebut Perda RTRW tersebut “… mengabaikan aspirasi masyarakat … melalui demo besar-besaran pada 6 Maret 2019 … menolak kegiatan usaha pertambangan.” Mahkamah memerintahkan Bupati dan DPRD Konawe Kepulauan merevisi Perda RTRW tersebut.

 

Namun, PT Gema Kreasi Perdana, diwakili direktur utamanya Rasnius Pasaribu lewat kuasa hukum Asmansyah & Partners, mengajukan judicial review ke Mahkamah Konstitusi atas UU Perlindungan Wilayah Pesisir dan Pulau-Pulau Kecil, sebagai respons atas putusan Mahkamah Agung. Pokok gugatannya adalah pasal 23 ayat 2 dan pasal 35 huruf k dalam undang-undang tersebut, yang intinya melarang aktivitas penambangan mineral.

Pengacara perusahaan menilai Mahkamah Agung menafsirkan kedua pasal itu sebagai “larangan tanpa syarat” atas kegiatan penambangan mineral di wilayah yang tergolong Pulau Kecil padahal perusahaan “telah memiliki izin yang sah” sehingga “terancam harus menghentikan kegiatannya dan berpotensi mengalami kerugian konstitusional dan ekonomi.”

Perusahaan, dalam surat permohonan ke Mahkamah Konstitusi, menyebut telah mengeluarkan total investasi Rp37,5 miliar dan 77,3 ribu dolar AS sejak 2007, selain telah menyalurkan lebih dari Rp70 miliar atas pembayaran “pembebasan tanam tumbuh kepada masyarakat” sebagai “ganti untung” atas tanaman yang terdampak pertambangan pada lahan seluas 568 ha.

Perusahaan mengajukan permohonan perkara itu pada 28 Maret 2023. Berkas  permohonannya pun sudah direvisi dan disidangkan pada 9 Mei. Mahkamah sudah menggelar sidang untuk perkara nomor 35/PUU-XXI/2023 itu pada 31 Agustus. Sidang berikutnya dijadwalkan pada 12 September. Tahapan selanjutnya adalah sidang putusan.

Koalisi masyarakat sipil berpendapat Mahkamah Konstitusi seharusnya menolak judicial review yang diajukan PT Gema Kreasi Perdana untuk menyelamatkan pulau-pulau kecil di seluruh Indonesia dari cengkraman industri pertambangan.

“Jika dikabulkan, aktivitas tambang tak cuma dilegalkan di Pulau Wawonii, tapi seluruh wilayah pesisir dan pulau-pulau kecil di Indonesia,” Wildan Siregar dari Trend Asia mengingatkan. “Kerusakan ekologis hingga konflik sosial akibat perusahaan tambang yang tidak menaati Undang-Undang No. 27 Tahun 2007 akan semakin masif.”

 

Sementara perusahaan menggugat ke Mahkamah Konstitusi, DPRD Sulawesi Tenggara resmi menghapus alokasi ruang tambang di Pulau Wawonii. Dalam Rancangan Peraturan Daerah (Raperda) Rencana Tata Ruang Wilayah (RTRW) Sulawesi Tenggara 2023-2043, Pulau Wawonii Kabupaten Konawe Kepulauan ditetapkan sebagai kawasan perikanan terpadu.

Ketua Pansus RTRW DPRD Sultra, Fajar Ishak, mengatakan keputusan untuk meniadakan ruang aktivitas pertambangan di Konawe Kepulauan berdasarkan putusan Mahkamah Agung.

Putusan MA meminta Pemda Konawe Kepulauan untuk merevisi pasal alokasi tambang dalam RTRW kabupaten karena bertentangan dengan Undang-Undang Pengelolaan Wilayah Pesisir dan Pulau-Pulau Kecil.

“Keputusan (Mahkamah Agung) itu lahir di penghujung tahun 2022, maka kita tidak boleh membantah itu, sehingga kita tetap mempertahankan Pulau Wawonii menjadi kawasan perikanan terpadu dan tidak ada kawasan tambang di sana,” ujar Fajar Ishak dalam pembahasan revisi RTRW yang yang digelar di Hotel Claro Kendari pada 29 Agustus 2023.

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Bantah Tudingan Pencemaran

Humas PT Gema Kreasi Perdana, Alexander Lieman, membantah perusahaan menyebabkan pencemaran lingkungan. Soal tuduhan polusi udara, katanya, perusahaan telah melakukan langkah preventif dengan cara memantau kualitas udara dan kebisingan secara rutin dua kali setahun, melakukan penyiraman jalan secara berkala, serta pengaturan kecepatan kendaraan operasional.

“Berbagai program ini kami jalankan sebagai bentuk komitmen terhadap ketentuan yang berlaku di bidang lingkungan hidup dan untuk menjaga kelestarian lingkungan Pulau Wawonii,” katanya.

“Bahkan sebagai bentuk iktikad baik kami terhadap masyarakat setempat yang menggarap lahan di wilayah Izin Pinjam Pakai Kawasan Hutan (IPPKH) kami, telah kami berikan ganti untung tanam tumbuh,” katanya.

Lieman berkata perusahaan tidak menyebabkan pencemaran air. Sebelum ada kegiatan pertambangan, setiap curah hujan tinggi melanda Pulau Wawonii maka menyebabkan air sungai keruh.

“Kegiatan pertambangan kami tidak menyebabkan pencemaran sungai di sekitar areal pertambangan.”

Lieman juga menampik tuduhan pencemaran air warga Mosolo. Katanya, air keruh pada bulan Mei hanya terjadi di dua desa, yakni Sukarela Jaya dan dan Dompo-Dompo Jaya.

“Kami tegaskan tuduhan ini salah. Boleh dikonfirmasi ke pemerintah desa dan Dinas Lingkungan Hidup setempat.”

 

 

Lieman menyebut perusahaan justru membantu masyarakat memenuhi kebutuhan air bersih, antara lain mendistribusikan air bersih dengan water truck ke desa-desa yang terdampak kekeruhan air sungai, menurunkan tim untuk mencari alternatif sumber air bersih, membersihkan bak penampungan air bersih warga, serta membuat sumur bor dan sumur cincin.

“Saat ini keadaan sungai sudah jernih kembali dan masyarakat sudah bebas mendapatkan air bersih untuk memenuhi kebutuhan sehari-hari.”

Pernyataan Lieman tak sesuai fakta lapangan. Air yang mengalir di Desa Dompo-Dompo Jaya, Sukarela Jaya, dan Roko-Roko masih mengandung lumpur. Pada 18 Agustus 2023, air masih berwarna cokelat pekat padahal sudah cukup lama tak terjadi hujan deras.

 

Dai Kaung, a 19-year-old Kachin young man, has lived in a refugee camp in Waingmaw Township since the military coup. After spending over two years in the camp, he found work at a rare earth mining site in the Pangwa area in early January 2024. He wanted to support his struggling family in the refugee camp.

 

Aerial view of a block being mined in Momok Township. Photo: Mizzima

Pangwa, located in northern Kachin State, is under the control of the Kachin militia led by Zakhung Ting Ying, who is loyal to the Myanmar military. This region is one of Myanmar’s largest producers of rare earth minerals, which are in high demand in neighbouring country China. Despite local opposition due to the environmental and livelihood impacts, rare earth production increased significantly after the military coup.

Dai Kaung was aware that rare earth production could severely harm the local environment and livelihood, but he needed the daily wage of 100 yuan (RMB) to support his family. Unfortunately, on May 29, the mining took his life when the mining site collapsed.

Along with him, some Chinese workers also went missing. Of the approximately 20 missing workers, only five bodies were recovered, and 12 people were confirmed dead.

“They told us he died. It rained heavily that day. He was such a good child, always helping his parents,” said Dai Naw, Dai Kaung’s sister. The family, including his parents, sister, and a younger brother, remained in the refugee camp and could not afford to hold a funeral for him.

Natural Resources and the Resistance after the Coup

Since the coup, Myanmar’s natural resource management has significantly deteriorated. The military’s administration has weakened, and previously ongoing environmental protection and management efforts have collapsed. Many youths have taken up arms against the military’s oppressive rule. Consequently, the number of armed groups across the country has reached nearly 900, according to political research organizations.

“We need money to fight the military. We rely on public donations and have to find other sources of income from the areas we control. The primary goal is to overthrow the military regime,” said a member of the current resistance movement.

They added that the need for funding and weapons for the armed resistance has driven the involvement in resource extraction activities.

Due to this situation, once-covert mining activites, opposed by local communities, are now onducted openly. Previously, only the militia, allies of the military, were involved in extensive rare earth production. Now, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA/KIO) is also heavily involved in these activities, leading to increased pressure and protests from local Kachin communities. However, as the belief strengthens that selling these natural resources to fund weapon purchases is crucial for toppling the military dictatorship, local Kachin environmental activists find themselves in a challenging position, unable to resist and left to watch helplessly.

China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) records from the past four years show that Myanmar has been one of the top 20 countries supplying rare earth minerals to China. According to ISP – Myanmar, a think-tank, Myanmar has sold rare earth minerals worth approximately 2.6 billion USD to China since 2017, with about 2 billion USD worth sold after the coup.

Rare earth extraction in Kachin State has increased significantly since the coup. Before the coup, there were 114 rare earth mining sites in Kachin State, but now there are over 340 sites.

We need weapons and money to fight the military dictatorship. On the one hand, the environmental damage is severe, and Myanmar will suffer the consequences. This is already happening in Kachin and other regions. —an environmental expert who requested anonymity due to security reasons.

 

 

Before and After: Rare Earth Mineral Block in Chiphue Township in March 2021 (left) and February 2022 (right). Photo: Google Earth/Mizzima

Before and After: Mountain Ridge in Chiphue Township in October 2018 (left) that turned into a cluster of rare earth blocks by December 2022 (right). Photo: Google Earth/Mizzima

Number of Tons of Rare Earth Minerals exported from Myanmar to China by year

 

 

Why is Rare Earth so important to China?

Rare earth mining is mainly conducted in Chipwi, Momauk, and Mansi townships in Kachin State. Satellite images show extensive environmental damage in these mining areas.

Rare earth minerals are vital for the production of smartphones, vehicles, and military goods, making them highly valuable to China. China is also the world’s largest exporter of rare earth minerals, using this capacity to build political and economic power. Over the past four years, 80% of the rare earth minerals China imported came from Myanmar.

“They exploit rare earth from struggling countries like Myanmar, ruining local communities. Meanwhile, they use it to gain economic, political and diplomatic advantages over the US and Western countries,” said an expert on China-Myanmar relations.

 

Conflict between Rare Earth Mining, Local Communities, and Authorities

During Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, experts and activists voiced concerns about Myanmar’s natural resources and environmental issues, including rare earth mining. However, environmental policies were hard to implement amid conflicts with the military and ethnic armed groups. The areas controlled by the militia have always been weak in terms of civilian government influence, largely due to their cooperation with the military. Now, the situation has worsened significantly. Previously, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA/KIO) listened to the voices of local Kachin communities and refrained from rare earth mining. However, in the current situation, they have begun allowing rare earth mining in their controlled areas.

“They make holes on the mountains, and put acid into it. It destroys the environment. Streams that used to flow are now polluted or dry up,” said Tin Baung, a local from Pangwa. “The land is severely damaged. From an aerial view, Pangwa looks like a sore spot.”

In these dire conditions, another young Kachin, 16-year-old Shun Tu, lost his life. A seventh-grade student, he worked at a rare earth mining site because of his strength. He died within months after falling ill.

“People say he drank contaminated water from the mining site. Others have had similar experiences. Losing a son is indescribable,” his mother told Mizzima.

As rare earth mining sites increased, people in Chipwi Township, Phare locals said they could no longer let their chickens, pigs, buffaloes, and cows roam freely. Contaminated water from the mining areas killed the animals. We can’t farm or raise livestock anymore. It’s hard to survive here, they said.

Regarding the environmental issues in Kachin State, Khawn Zang, one of the leaders of the Transparency and Accountability Network Kachin (TANK), an environmental watchdog in Kachin said, “In the past, the chemicals they used caused many problems. Now, there are more environmental issues. They dig into people’s fields more often, leading to more protests. The situation has worsened.”

About 150,000 people live in the three main mining townships of Chipwi, Momauk, and Mansi, and their livelihoods are increasingly threatened by mining activities, according to environmental researchers.

 

Work Sites in Chiphue Township. Photo: Mizzima

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Deforestation and the Resistance War in Sagaing

“People can’t continue farming or other regular jobs because of the fires and military raids. So they cut and sell trees to brokers to make a living,” said Tun Tun, a former forest department officer from Monywa District who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) after the coup.

Sagaing’s famous timber areas like Yinmarpin, Monywa, Kathar, Kalay, Banmauk, Wuntho, and Chaung-U experienced illegal logging even before 2020, but forests remained. After the coup, deforestation skyrocketed. Valuable timber such as teak, ironwood, and tamalan attracted demand from China.

The NLD’s government had policies to protect forests, but these were abandoned after the coup when forest officers joined the CDM. The military’s involvement in forest management led to rampant illegal logging.

The resistance groups also relied on logging for funding their fight, Sagaing locals said. “They cut a lot of trees. All groups are involved. The checkpoints are manned by PDFs and the military. Each checkpoint costs between 500,000 to 1 million kyats. Brokers from Monywa and Mandalay handle it,” a local resident told Mizzima.

According to the Global Forest Watch (GFW), Myanmar had more than 31.7 million forest alerts from February 1, 2021, to March 27, 2024. Environmental researchers pointed out that this indicates the extent of logging.

 

With over 220 of the 330 townships in Myanmar experiencing some form of armed conflict, deforestation in Sagaing is a serious issue. Sagaing’s 45 townships include 19 severely affected by military violence. Villages have been burned, and airstrikes have been conducted by the military, resulting in over 90,000 homes burned nationwide, with 60,000 in Sagaing alone, according to Data for Myanmar.

Locals and experts say it is challenging to prioritize environmental protection amid the struggle for survival. “It’s not easy to get weapons. We have a lot of struggles. Some timber merchants used to trade guns for timber. Not all of them, though. Timber is transported to China. It’s sad to see the forests disappear. We will have to recover them later (after the overthrowing of Myanmar military junta),” a local close to Sagaing’s public administration PDF told Mizzima.

These logging activities are not only happening in Sagaing but also in the ASEAN Heritage Park of Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park. This park, spanning over 540 square miles, is a safe haven for wildlife. Now, even these forests are disappearing.

“After the coup, logging trucks started taking timber daily. It’s not a small amount,” a local eyewitness told Mizzima. Chinese merchants favor tamalan wood due to its beautiful grain, making it highly sought after by furniture manufacturers, locals said.

“A few months after the coup, the frequency of trucks coming to cut and transport wood has increased significantly,” a local eyewitness told Mizzima. The Alaungdaw Kathapa Forest is rich with teak and ironwood, and the Mahamyaing Reserve, not far from Alaungdaw Kathapa, has a high output of tamalan, a type of wood highly prized by Chinese merchants due to its beautiful grain, making it very popular among furniture makers, according to locals.

 

Before and After: Alongtaw Kassapa region in 2017 (left) and 2023 (right). Photos: Google Earth/Mizzima

Illegal logging poses a significant threat to the environment in Sagaing. However, Sagaing has long faced environmental challenges. The Letpadaung Copper Mine, which previously generated over two million USD in revenue per day, is one such challenge.

Since the coup, the mine has not been operating as visibly, but the military has erected fences and destroyed the homes of local residents near the project area. Copper from the mine continues to be transported with the help of Myanmar military forces, leading to frequent clashes between resistance forces and the military.

Similarly, the Taguang Nickel Plant in Tagaung Township, Sagaing, is another project of significant importance to China. This project is notorious for displacing local residents, violating human rights, and damaging the environment. At the end of July, the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) under the National Unity Government (NUG) seized control of the plant.

 

Aerial view of Letpadaung Copper Mine. Photo: Google Earth/Mizzima

However, due to pressure from the Chinese government, the resistance has assured that the project will be protected. This situation highlights that while Chinese projects may harm local communities and the environment, those involved in the conflict in Myanmar cannot easily resist China’s influence, both politically and economically.

 

Shan State’s Projects in Darkness

The escalating conflict and the instability following the military coup have silenced many local community-based organizations that once worked to raise awareness about the negative impacts of various projects and led protests against them. These organizations have had to flee their homes and now live under constant threat from armed groups, rendering them unable to speak out against ongoing projects, which are now proceeding unchecked.

In Shan State, after Operation 1027 launched in October last year, many strategically important Chinese projects in the region came under the control of Three Brotherhood Alliance (3BHA). These armed groups are reportedly close to Chinese influence, leading to situations where these projects could later be subject to negotiations with the armed groups. This scenario raises concerns about environmental impacts, especially if it results in conditions where the rights and voices of the local people are suppressed.

There is no rule of law to protect the people at this time. The public is not protected by the law, so businesses exploit them, and there are human rights violations, but the people can’t speak out. —an environmental activist based in Shan State, reflecting on the current situation.

In recent years, Chinese mining companies have operated in Shan State, but local residents are often kept in the dark about essential information. “With the country in ruins, those with weapons and power are doing whatever they can for their own benefit. For ordinary people, this means they can no longer cultivate their land or are increasingly exposed to environmental hazards. But right now, survival is the priority,” said a young displaced person from Shan State.

According to research by ISP-Myanmar, the combined value of projects planned and currently being implemented in Shan State by Chinese companies is over $23 billion, representing almost half of China’s total investment in Myanmar.

The military junta is currently facing both military and economic crises. The junta, which once profited from various trade routes, has lost control of many border trading posts connecting Myanmar with China, India, Bangladesh, and Thailand.

Since Operation 1027, they have lost control of five major trading posts, which account for nearly 40% of the total trade volume. Although the junta regained control of the Myawaddy post on the Thailand-Myanmar border with the help of the Karen Border Guard Force, trade flows have not returned to pre-conflict levels.

The economic situation in Myanmar has deteriorated significantly. The value of the kyat has plummeted from around 1,330 kyats per dollar in February 2021, at the time of the coup, to over 6,000 kyats per dollar today. The World Bank’s June report highlighted that due to ongoing conflict, labour shortages, and currency instability, conducting business in Myanmar has become extremely challenging, with poverty levels reaching their highest point in six years.

Given the country’s economic collapse, it raises the question of whether addressing environmental and resource destruction is still a priority or if more pressing issues have taken precedence.

However, the ongoing extraction and exploitation of resources make it increasingly difficult to mitigate environmental damage, as noted by an environmental expert. “There is practically nothing we can do now. Even if we try to revive the environment, it will take a long time. Right now, nothing is possible. The Chinese are buying up everything they can get their hands on,” the expert said.

Currently, most of the rare earth minerals from Kachin State are being directed to China, just as the majority of timber from Sagaing and Bago is also destined for China.

“Not everyone in the resistance is ignorant of environmental issues. Some are well aware. But with the pressing need for weapons and funding, they have no choice but to take this path. This makes it difficult to mitigate the damage,” the environmental expert explained.

The Chinese have also seized the opportunity to secure their influence in the resistance, with Chinese merchants capitalizing on the situation. The funds generated from selling timber to China are reportedly being used to purchase weapons. “Trucks are leaving Kachin every day, heading to China. Every group, regardless of who controls the area, is selling the timber to Chinese merchants. They handle transportation and clearing the routes,” a source close to the Sagaing resistance explained.

The path to effectively managing and conserving Myanmar’s natural environment and resources has always been fraught with challenges. However, the current situation represents an unprecedented difficulty. Amid political upheaval and the ongoing resistance, the continued exploitation of resources resembles a self-inflicted wound that exacerbates the country’s plight.

 

အသက် ၁၉ နှစ်အရွယ် ကချင်အမျိုးသား ဒိုင်ခေါင်ဟာ ဝိုင်းမော်မြို့နယ်ထဲက စစ်ဘေးရှောင်ဒုက္ခသည် စခန်းတခုမှာ နေခဲ့ရပါတယ်။ စခန်းမှာ နှစ်နှစ်ကျော်နေခဲ့ပြီးတဲ့နောက် ၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလဆန်းပိုင်းမှာတော့ ပန်ဝါဒေသမှာရှိတဲ့ မြေရှားသတ္တုထူးဖော်ရေးလုပ်ငန်းခွင်ထဲကို ရောက်ရှိလာခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဒါကလည်း ဒုက္ခသည်စခန်းထဲက မိသားစုကို ထောက်ပံ့ပေးနိုင်ဖို့ပါ။

 

မိုးကုတ်မြို့နယ်တွင် မိုင်းခွဲသည့်လုပ်ကွက်တစ်ခုကို ဝေဟင်မှမြင်ကွင်း။ Photo: Mizzima

ပန်ဝါဆိုတာ ကချင်ပြည်နယ်မြောက်ပိုင်း၊ ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်ထဲကဖြစ်ပြီး နေပြည်တော်ရဲ့သစ္စာခံ ဇခုန်တိန့်ယိန်းဦးဆောင်တဲ့ ပြည်သူစစ်ရဲ့ ထိန်းချုပ်မှုအောက်မှာ ရှိနေတဲ့နေရာပါ။ နောက်ပြီး အဲ့ဒီဒေသဟာ မြန်မာရဲ့ မြေရှားထုတ်လုပ်မှုအမြင့်ဆုံးသောနေရာဒေသတွေထဲက တခုဖြစ်ပြီး အိမ်နီးချင်းအင်အားကြီး တရုတ်နိုင်ငံက အသည်းအသန်လိုအပ်နေတဲ့ မြေရှားအတွက်လည်း အရေးကြီးတဲ့နေရာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

ဒီလို မြေရှားထုတ်လုပ်နေတာတွေဟာ ကချင်ဒေသခံပြည်သူတွေအဖို့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ထိခိုက်နစ်နာမှုတွေအပြင် ဘ၀နေထိုင်မှုကိုပါထိခိုက်စေတဲ့အတွက် ပြင်းပြင်းထန်ထန် ကန့်ကွက်နေခဲ့ကြပေမဲ့ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်ပိုင်း ထုတ်လုပ်မှုတွေက ပိုမိုများပြားလာခဲ့ပါတယ်။

တရက်လုပ်ခ ယွမ် ၁၀၀ ဆိုတဲ့ ဒိုင်ခေါင်နေ့စားခက မိသားစုစားဝတ်နေရေးအတွက် တဒင်္ဂအဖြေသာဖြစ်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဘာကြောင့်လဲဆိုတော့ ငါးလ ဝန်းကျင်သာ အလုပ်လုပ်ခဲ့ရလို့ပါ။ မေ ၂၉  ရက်မှာတော့ ဒိုင်ခေါင် အလုပ်လုပ်နေတဲ့ မြေရှားလုပ်ကွက် ပြိုကျပြီး သူလည်းတွင်းထဲမှာ သေဆုံးသွားခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီနေ့က ပျောက်ဆုံးသွားသူတွေထဲမှာ တရုတ်နိုင်ငံသားအလုပ်သမားတချို့လည်း ပါဝင်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အလောင်း ငါးလောင်းပဲ ပြန်ရပြီး လူ ၁၂ ဦး သေဆုံးတယ်လို့သာ တာဝန်ရှိသူ တရုတ်အကြီးအကဲတွေက စာရင်းသွင်းခဲ့ပါတယ်။

“သူ သေတယ်လို့ သတင်းလှမ်းပေးတယ်။ သူတို့ဘက်ကပြောတာတော့ မိုးတွေအရမ်းရွာတယ်တဲ့ အဲ့နေ့က။ သူက အရမ်းလိမ္မာတဲ့ ကလေးပါ။ မိဘကိုလည်း ကူတယ်” လို့ ဒိုင်ခေါင်ရဲ့ အစ်မဖြစ်သူ ဒိုင်နော်က မဇ္ဈိမ ကို ပြောပါတယ်။ ဒိုင်ခေါင်တို့ မိသားစုမှာ ဖခင်၊ မိခင်၊ အစ်မနဲ့ ညီငယ်လေးတဦး ကျန်ရစ်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ သူတို့ အားလုံးလည်း အခုတော့ စစ်ရှောင်ဒုက္ခသည်စခန်းထဲမှာ နေရဆဲဖြစ်လို့ ဒိုင်ခေါင်ရဲ့ အသုဘကို မလုပ်ပေးနိုင်ခဲ့ဘူးလို့လည်း ဆိုပါတယ်။

 

အာဏာသိမ်းခြင်းနောက် သယံဇာတနှင့် ခုခံစစ်

စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးတဲ့နောက်မှာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ သဘာ၀သယံဇာတ စီမံခန့်ခွဲမှုဟာ သိသိသာသာ ပိုမိုပျက်စီးခဲ့ပါတယ်။ စစ်ကောင်စီရဲ့ အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးယန္တရားဟာ ယိုင်နဲ့နေခဲ့ပြီး အာဏာမသိမ်းခင်အချိန်ကာလများက အစိုးရအနေနဲ့ ကိုင်တွယ်ဖြေရှင်းဖို့ လိုအပ်ဆဲ၊ လုပ်ဆောင်နေဆဲဖြစ်တဲ့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ဆိုင်ရာ ထိန်းသိမ်းရေး၊ စီမံခန့်ခွဲရေးကိစ္စတွေဟာလည်း ပျက်စီးသွားခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အာဏာသိမ်းတာကိုကန့်ကွက်တဲ့ နိုင်ငံတဝှမ်း ငြိမ်းချမ်းစွာဆန္ဒပြမှုကို စစ်ကောင်စီက လက်နက်နဲ့ဖြိုခွင်းမှုတွေအပြီး လူငယ်အများအပြားဟာ လက်နက်ကိုင်တော်လှန်ဖို့ ရွေးချယ်ခဲ့ကြပါတယ်။ နိုင်ငံအနှံ့အပြားမှာ ပေါ်ထွက်လာခဲ့တဲ့ လက်နက်ကိုင် အဖွဲ့ကြီး၊ အဖွဲ့ငယ် အရေအတွက်ဟာ ၉၀၀ နီးပါး ရှိလာခဲ့ပြီလို့ နိုင်ငံရေးဆိုင်ရာ သုသေသနအဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေရဲ့ မှတ်တမ်းတွေအရ သိရပါတယ်။

“စစ်တပ်ကို တိုက်တော့ ငွေလိုတယ်လေ။ ပြည်သူတွေ လှူကြတာလည်း မှီခိုရတာပေါ့။ ကိုယ်အုပ်ချုပ်ထားတဲ့ နေရာတွေကနေ ရပေါက်ရလမ်းတွေလည်း ရှာကြရတာပေါ့။ အဓိက အရေးက စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ပျက်သုဉ်းရေးဖြစ်နေတယ်” လို့ လက်ရှိစစ်အာဏာရှင်တော်လှန်ရေးရဲ့ ခုခံစစ်ထဲမှာ ပါဝင်လုပ်ဆောင်နေသူတဦးက မဇ္ဈိမကို ပြောပါတယ်။  အဲ့ဒီအဖွဲ့တွေကို လက်နက်တပ်ဆင်ပေးတာတွေ၊ သင်တန်းပေးတာတွေကို တာဝန်ယူကြတဲ့ တိုင်းရင်းသားတော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့ကြီးတွေရဲ့ ငွေကြေးလိုအပ်မှုတွေနဲ့ သယံဇာတထုတ်လုပ်မှုတွေဟာ ချိတ်ဆက်နေတယ်လို့လည်း သူက ဆိုပါတယ်။

အရင်က ဒေသခံတွေရဲ့ ကန့်ကွက်မှုတွေကြားမှာ သိုသိုသိပ်သိပ်လုပ်ခဲ့ကြတဲ့ မြေရှားသတ္တုတူးဖော်မှုဟာ အခုမှာတော့ ပြောင်ကိုပဲလုပ်နေခဲ့ကြပါတော့တယ်။ အရင်က မြန်မာစစ်တပ်ရဲ့လက်အောက်ခံ ကချင်ပြည်သူ့စစ်တွေကသာ မြေရှားထုတ်လုပ်မှုကို လုပ်ခဲ့ကြပေမဲ့ အခုအခါမှာတော့ ကချင်လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်မတော် (KIA/KIO) အနေနဲ့ပါ ထုတ်လုပ်မှုတွေမှာပါဝင်နေခဲ့တာဖြစ်လို့ ကချင်ဒေသခံတွေက ကန့်ကွက်မှုတွေ၊ ခေါင်းဆောင်တွေအပေါ်ဖိအားပေးမှုတွေလည်း ရှိခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ ဒီလိုသယံဇာတရောင်းချ ခြင်းဟာ စစ်အာဏာရှင်စနစ်ဖြုတ်ချရေးအတွက် လိုအပ်တဲ့အရာဖြစ်တယ်လို့ ယူဆချက်ကြီးကြီးမားမားရှိလာတဲ့ အခါ ကချင်ဒေသခံသဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူတွေလည်း မတတ်သာလို့ လက်ပိုက်ကြည့်ရတဲ့ အနေအထားကို ရောက်ရှိလာခဲ့ပါတယ်။

တရုတ်နိုင်ငံရဲ့ အကောက်အခွန်အထွေထွေအုပ်ချုပ်မှုအာဏာပိုင်အဖွဲ့ (General Administration of Customs of China – GACC) ရဲ့ ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ လေးနှစ်တာ မှတ်တမ်းတွေအရ မြန်မာဟာ တရုတ်ဆီ မြေရှားတင်သွင်းတဲ့ ထိပ်တန်းနိုင်ငံ ၂၀ စာရင်းမှာ ပါဝင်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ တရုတ်အရေးကို အထူးပြုလေ့လာနေတဲ့  ISP – Myanmar ရဲ့ အချက်အလက်တွေအရတော့ မြန်မာဟာ ၂၀၁၇ ခုနှစ်ကနေ အခုအချိန်ထိ စုစုပေါင်း အမေရိကန်ဒေါ်လာ ၂.၆ ဘီလီယံတန်ဖိုးရှိတဲ့ မြေရှားသတ္တုတွေကို တရုတ်နိုင်ငံထံ ရောင်းချခဲ့ပြီး အဲဒီအထဲက  နှစ်ဘီလီယံဝန်းကျင်တန်ဖိုးဟာ စစ်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးမှ ရောင်းချခဲ့တာလို့ သိရပါတယ်။  အာဏာသိမ်းမှုမတိုင်ခင်က ကချင်ပြည်နယ်မှာ မြေရှားလုပ်ကွက်ပေါင်း ၁၁၄ လုပ်ကွက် ရှိခဲ့တာကနေ လက်ရှိအချိန်မှာတော့ လုပ်ကွက်ပေါင်း ၃၄၀ ကျော်အထိ ရှိလာပါတယ်။

“စစ်အာဏာရှင်ကို အမြစ်ပြတ်တိုက်ဖို့ဆိုတဲ့ အရေးကိစ္စမှာ လက်နက်လိုတယ်။ ပိုက်ဆံလိုတယ်ပေါ့။ ကျွန်တော်တို့ အမြင်မှာတော့ အဲ့ဒီအခြေအနေက တပိုင်း။ သယံဇာတတွေ ပျက်ဆီးသွားပြီး နောင်ဆို မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ဆိုင်ရာ ဆိုးကျိုးတွေ ပိုခံစားလာရမယ်ဆိုတာ သတိပြုစေချင်တာပါ။ အခုလည်း ကချင်နဲ့ တခြားနေရာတွေမှာပါ ဖြစ်နေပါပြီ” လို့ အမည်မဖော်လိုသူ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ပညာရှင်တဦးက မဇ္ဈိမကိုပြောပါတယ်။

 

Left: ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ မြေရှားသတ္တု လုပ်ကွက်တခုဖြစ်လာမည့် တောင်ကို ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ် မတ်လတွင် မြင်ရပုံ. 
Right: ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ မြေရှားသတ္တု လုပ်ကွက်တခုအဖြစ်အသွင်ပြောင်းသွားသည့် တောင်ကို ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ လတွင် မြင်ရပုံ.  Photos: Mizzima

Left: ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ မြေရှားသတ္တု လုပ်ကွက်များအစုအဝေးဖြစ်လာမည့် တောင်ကြောကို ၂၀၁၈ ခုနှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလတွင်တွေ့ရစဥ်. 
Right: ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်အတွင်းရှိ မြေရှားသတ္တု လုပ်ကွက်များအစုအဝေးအဖြစ်အသွင်ပြောင်းသွားသည့် တောင် ကြောကို ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဒီဇင်ဘာလ တွင်တွေ့ရစဥ်. Photos: Mizzima

 

မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှ တရုတ်နိုင်ငံသို့ တစ်နှစ်ထက်တစ်နှစ်တင်ပို့သည့် ရှားပါးမြေတွင်းထွက်သတ္တု တန်ချိန်များစွာရှိသည်။

 

တရုတ်အတွက် ဘာကြောင့်မြေရှားက အရေးပါသလဲ

ကချင်ပြည်နယ်မှာ မြေရှားသတ္တုကို ချီဖွေ၊ မိုးမောက်၊ မန်စီစတဲ့ မြို့နယ်တွေမှာ အဓိကအားဖြင့် တူးဖော်ကြပါတယ်။ ဂြိုလ်တုကနေ ရိုက်ယူတဲ့ ကောင်းကင်ဓာတ်ပုံတွေအရ ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်ထဲမှာ သဘော၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ရုပ်ပျက်ဆင်းပျက် ပျက်စီးနေတဲ့ မြေရှားလုပ်ကွက်တွေကို တွေ့မြင်ရပါတယ်။ စမတ်ဖုန်း၊ မော်တော်ကားကနေ စစ်ဘက်ဆိုင်ရာကုန်ထုတ်လုပ်မှုတွေအထိ အသုံးဝင်နေတဲ့ မြေရှားဟာ တရုတ်အတွက်တော့ ရသလောက်ဝယ်ယူနေမယ့် သတ္တုရတနာဖြစ်နေပါတယ်။ တဘက်မှာလည်း တရုတ်ဟာ နိုင်ငံတကာကို မြေရှားတင်ပို့ရောင်းချတဲ့နေရာမှာလည်း  ကမ္ဘာ့အင်အားအကြီးဆုံးဖြစ်နေတယ်။ တရုတ်ဟာ ကမ္ဘာကို နိုင်ငံရေးနဲ့ စီးပွားရေးဆိုင်ရာ ပါဝါ၊ ဩဇာတည်ဆောက်တဲ့ ကစားကွက်မှာ မြေရှားတင်ပို့နိုင်မှုကလည်း အကြောင်းတစ်ရပ်ဖြစ်တယ်။ ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ လေးနှစ်အတွင်း တရုတ်က တခြားနိုင်ငံတွေကဆီက ဝယ်ယူခဲ့တဲ့ မြေရှားသတ္တုအားလုံးရဲ့ ၈၀ ရာခုန်နှုန်းဟာ မြန်မာက ဖြစ်နေခဲ့တာပါ။

သူက မြန်မာနိုင်ငံလို ဖွံ့ဖြိုးဖို့ အခက်အခဲတွေ ရင်ဆိုင်နေရတဲ့ နိုင်ငံငယ်တွေဆီကနေ လူမှုဘ၀တွေကို ပျက်စီးစေတဲ့ မြေရှားကို ဂုတ်သွေးစုပ် ဝယ်တယ်။ ပြီးတော့ အမေရိကန်နဲ့ အနောက်နိုင်ငံတွေကိုကျတော့ သံခင်းတမံခင်းအရရော၊ စီးပွားရေးအရရော အသာစီးယူတာတွေကို လုပ်တယ်” လို့ တရုတ်မြန်မာဆက်ဆံရေးဆိုင်ရာ လေ့လာသုံးသပ်သူတဦးက မဇ္ဈိမကိုပြောပါတယ်။

မြေရှားသတ္တု၊ ဒေသခံ၊ တာဝန်ရှိသူတို့ကြား ပဋိပက္ခ

လက်ရှိ စစ်ကောင်စီက ထောင်ချချုပ်နှောင်တာခံနေရတဲ့ နိုင်ငံတော်အတိုင်ပင်ခံပုဂ္ဂိုလ် ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်အစိုးရ ဦးဆောင်ခဲ့တဲ့ ကာလတွေထဲမှာပဲ ပညာရှင်တွေ၊ တက်ကြွလှုပ်ရှားသူတွေဟာ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ သဘာ၀သယံဇာတနဲ့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်း ကျင်ဆိုင်ရာအရေးကိစ္စတွေအတွက် ဝေဖန်ထောက်ပြမှုတွေ၊ တောင်းဆိုမှုတွေ ရှိခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီအထဲမှာ မြေရှားကိစ္စလည်း ပါဝင်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ စစ်ဘက်-အရပ်ဘက်အာဏာခွဲဝေအုပ်ချုပ်မှုအောက်မှာ ဒေါ်အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်ရဲ့ အမျိုးသားဒီမိုကရေစီအဖွဲ့ချုပ် (NLD) အစိုးရဟာ မြေရှားနဲ့ ပတ်သက်ရင် မကိုင်တွယ်နိုင်ခဲ့ပါဘူး။ ပြည်သူ့စစ်တွေ ထိန်းချုပ်တဲ့နေရာဖြစ်ပြီး စစ်တပ်နဲ့အကျိုးတူလုပ်ကိုင်နေတာတွေကြောင့် အရပ်သားအစိုးရရဲ့ ဩဇာသက်ရောက်မှု မရှိသလောက်ကို အားနည်းခဲ့ပါတယ်။  အခုတော့ ပိုမိုဆိုးရွားတဲ့အခြေအနေဆီ ရောက်လို့ လာခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အရင်က ကချင်ဒေသခံတွေရဲ့ စကားကို နားထောင်ပြီး မြေရှားတူးဖော်မှုကို မလုပ်ခဲ့တဲ့ KIA/KIO အနေနဲ့လည်း အခုအချိန်မှာ သူရဲ့ ထိန်းချုပ်နယ်မြေတွေမှာ မြေရှားတူးဖော်မှုတွေကို ပေါ်တင်ပဲ လုပ်လာခဲ့ပါတယ်။

“ တောင်တွေ အားလုံးကို ဖောက်ပြီးလုပ်ကြတဲ့အခါကျတော့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ပျက်စီးတာပေါ့။ အရင်ကစီးတဲ့ ချောင်းတွေက ရေတွေနောက်သွားတယ်။ မစီးဆင်းတော့တာတွေလည်း ဖြစ်တယ်” လို့ ပန်ဝါဒေသခံ ဦးတိန့်ဘောမ့်က မဇ္ဈိမကိုပြောပါတယ်။ “မြေတွေကတော့ တော်တော်တော့ ပျက်စီးသွားပြီပေါ့။ ပန်ဝါမြို့ မြေပုံကို အပေါ်က ကြည့်ရင် ယားနာဖြစ်နေတဲ့ တင်ပါးလို ဖြစ်နေပြီ” လို့ သူက ဆက်ပြောပါတယ်။

အခြေအနေဆိုးထဲမှာ ဒိုင်ခေါင်လို အသက်ပေးခဲ့ရတဲ့ နောက်ထပ်ကချင်လူငယ်တယောက်ကတော့ ၁၆ နှစ်အရွယ် ရှန်တူးပါ။ သူက သတ္တမတန်းကျောင်းသားဖြစ်ပြီး  ၁၆ နှစ် အရွယ်သာရှိသေးပေမဲ့ မြေရှားလုပ်ကွက်မှာ အလုပ်သွားလုပ်ခဲ့တာ လပိုင်းအကြာမှာပဲ ဖျားနာပြီး သေဆုံးသွားပါတယ်။

“အကုန်လုံးကတော့ မြေရှားတူးတဲ့နားက ရေတွေ သောက်မိလို့ ဆုံးရတာလို့ ပြောကြတယ်။ တခြားသူတွေလည်း အဲ့လိုဖြစ်တာတွေ ရှိတယ်တဲ့လေ။ သားလေးတယောက်ဆုံးတဲ့ ခံစားချက်က ပြောမပြတတ်အောင်ပဲ” လို့ မိခင်ဖြစ်သူက မဇ္ဈိမကို ပြောပါတယ်။

မြေရှားထုတ်လုပ်မှု လုပ်ကွက်တွေ များလာတဲ့နောက် ကြုံတွေ့ရတဲ့အခြေအနေတွေနဲ့ ပတ်သက်လို့တော့ ချီဖွေမြို့နယ်၊ ဖရဲဒေသံခံတဦးကတော့ သူတို့အနေနဲ့ ကြက်၊ ဝက်၊ ကျွဲ၊ နွားစတဲ့ အိမ်မွေးတိရစ္တာန်တွေကို အရင်ကလို လွှတ်ကျောင်းလို့ မရတော့ဘူးလို့ ဆိုပါတယ်။ လွှတ်ကျောင်းလိုက်ရင် မြေရှားထုတ်လုပ်မှုဘက်ကလာတဲ့ ဓာတုဓာတ်တွေရောနေတဲ့ရေတွေ သောက်မိပြီး သေဆုံးကုန်တယ်လို့လည်း ဆိုပါတယ်။ “စိုက်ပျိုးရေးရော၊ မွေးမြူရေးရော မရတော့ဘူး။ နှစ်ရှည်ပင်တွေလည်း စိုက်လို့ မရတော့ဘူး။ ဒီမှာတော့ အသက်ရှင်ဖို့ တော်တော်ခက်နေပြီ” လို့ သူက ဆိုပါတယ်။

ကချင်ပြည်နယ်သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားတဲ့ Tank အဖွဲ့ခေါင်းဆောင် ဦးခေါင်ဇောင်းကလည်း မြေရှားသတ္တု ပိုတိုးထုတ်လာတာဟာ ပြဿနာတွေ ပိုကြီးလာတယ်လို့ ပြောပါတယ်။

ဟိုအရင်ကတော့ (တူးတဲ့အခါမှာ) သူတို့ သုံးတဲ့ ဓာတုပစ္စည်းတွေကြောင့် ပြဿနာဖြစ်တာ များတာ။ အခုက သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ပြဿနာတွေလည်း များလာတယ်။ ပြည်သူတွေရဲ့ ခြံတွေထဲမှာ ဝင်တူးတာလည်း များလာတယ်။ အဲဒါကြောင့် ဆန္ဒပြတာတွေ များလာတာ။ အခြေအနေက ပိုဆိုးလာလို့ပေါ့” လို့ သူက ဆိုပါတယ်။

မြေရှားသတ္တုတူးဖော်မှုကို အဓိကအားဖြင့် လုပ်ကိုင်နေတဲ့ ချီဖွေ၊ မိုးမောက်၊ မန်စီ မြို့နယ် သုံးခုမှာ နေထိုင်သူ ဒေသခံပြည်သူပေါင်း ၁၅၀,၀၀၀ ဝန်းကျင်ရှိနေတာဖြစ်ပြီး သူတို့ရဲ့ ဘ၀နေထိုင်မှုအပေါ် သက်ရောက်မှုကြီးတယ်လို့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်လေ့လာသူတွေက ဆိုပါတယ်။

 

Left: ချီဖွေ မြို့နယ်ရှိ မြေရှားလုပ်ငန်းခွင်တခုအားတွေ့ရစဥ် (၁)
Right: ချီဖွေ မြို့နယ်ရှိ မြေရှားလုပ်ငန်းခွင်တခုအားတွေ့ရစဥ် (၂). Photos: Mizzima

 

စစ်ကိုင်း၊ ခုခံစစ်နဲ့ သစ်တောပြုန်းတီးမှု ပြဿနာ

အိမ်တွေ မီးလောင်လိုက်၊ စစ်တပ်က ဝင်စီးလို့ ပြေးရလိုက်နဲ့ လူတွေလည်း ပုံမှန်လုပ်နေတဲ့ စိုက်ပျိုးရေးနဲ့ တခြားအလုပ်တွေ လုပ်ဖို့ ခက်ခဲလာတယ်ဗျ။ အဲတော့ သူတို့တွေက နီးစပ်ရာတွေက သစ်တွေကို ခုတ်၊ ဝယ်လက်ရှိတဲ့ ပွဲစားတွေဆီ ရောင်းပြီး စားဝတ်နေရေးဖြေရှင်းရတာတွေ ရှိလာတယ်” လို့ စစ်တပ်အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက် သစ်တောဌာနကနေ CDM လုပ်ခဲ့တဲ့ အရာရှိဟောင်းတဦးဖြစ်တဲ့ ကိုထွန်းထွန်း (အမည်လွှဲ) က ပြောပါတယ်။

စစ်ကိုင်းရဲ့ နာမည်ကြီး သစ်ထွက်ရာနေရာတွေဖြစ်တဲ့ ယင်းမာပင်၊ မော်လိုက်၊ ကသာ၊ ကလေး၊ ဗန်းမောက်၊ ဝန်းသို၊ ချောင်းဦးစတဲ့နေရာတွေဟာ ၂၀၂၀ ပြည့်နှစ်အထိ သစ်ခိုးထုတ်မှုတွေ ရှိနေခဲ့တာဆိုပေမဲ့ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးနောက်မှာတော့ သစ်တောပြုန်းတီးမှုဟာ အဆမတန်မြင့်တက်လာခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ကျွန်းသစ်နဲ့ သစ်မာပင်တွေနဲ့ တမလန်းသစ်တွေဟာ အဆိုပါဒေသတွေရဲ့ နာမည်ကျော်ထွက်ကုန်တွေဖြစ်ပြီး တရုတ်နိုင်ငံရဲ့ သစ်လိုအပ်ချက်ကို ဆွဲဆောင်နိုင်ခဲ့တဲ့ သစ်တွေလည်း ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

NLD အစိုးရလက်ထက်မှာ သစ်တောတွေ ထိန်းသိမ်းဖို့ ကြိုးစားခဲ့တဲ့ မူဝါဒတွေဟာ အာဏာသိမ်းလို့ သစ်တောအရာရှိတွေ အာဏာသိမ်းစစ်အုပ်စုနဲ့မပူးပေါင်းအလုပ်မဆင်းတဲ့ (CDM )လုပ်ခဲ့အခါ ရပ်တန့်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ နောက်ပြီး စစ်တပ်ဘက်က သစ်တောရေးရာစီမံခန့်ခွဲရေးထဲ ထဲထဲဝင်ဝင်ရောက်ခဲ့တဲ့အခါ သစ်ထုတ်လုပ်မှုဟာ စာရင်းပျောက် အဆမတန်ဖြစ်လာခဲ့ပါတော့တယ်။ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်တွေဘက်ကလည်း ခုခံစစ်အတွက် လိုအပ်တဲ့လက်နက်တွေနဲ့ ရိက္ခာတွေ ဝယ်နိုင်ဖို့ ကြိုးစားရှာဖွေကြရာမှာ ဒီသစ်ထုတ်လုပ်မှုတွေနဲ့ ပတ်သက်လာရတယ်လို့ စစ်ကိုင်းဒေသခံတွေက ဆိုပါတယ်။

“သစ်က တော်တော်ထုတ်တာ။ အဖွဲ့တွေတော့ အကုန်ပါတာပဲ။ ဂိတ်တွေက PDF (ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်) ဂိတ်တွေ၊ စစ်တပ်ဂိတ်တွေပေါ့။ တဂိတ်ဖြတ်တိုင်း ငါးသိန်းကနေ ဆယ်သိန်းအထိ ပေးရတယ်။ မုံရွာနဲ့ မန္တလေးက ပွဲစားတွေပဲ လုပ်တာ” လို့ စစ်ကိုင်းဒေသခံတဦးက မဇ္ဈိမကို ပြောပြပါတယ်။

ကမ္ဘာ့သစ်တောလေ့လာစောင့်ကြည့်ရေးအဖွဲ့ (GFW) ရဲ့ အဆိုအရ  အာဏာသိမ်းတဲ့နေ့ဖြစ်တဲ့  ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ ရက်ကနေ ၂၀၂၄ ခုနှစ်၊ ဇူလိုင် ၂၈ ရက်အထိ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွက် သစ်တောပြုန်းတီးမှုဆိုင်ရာ သတိပေးသည့်အကြိမ်ရေ သိန်း ၃၀၀ ကျော် ရှိခဲ့တယ်လို့ သိရပါတယ်။ ဒီအခြေအနေကို ကြည့်ခြင်းအားဖြင့် သစ်ထုတ်လုပ်မှုအနေအထားကို မှန်းဆနိုင်မယ်လို့လည်း သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်လေ့လာသူတွေက ထောက်ပြပါတယ်။

 

 

အခုဆိုရင်မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ စုစုပေါင်း မြို့နယ် ၃၃၀ မှာ ၂၂၀ ကျော်ဟာ တိုက်ပွဲကြီး၊ တိုက်ပွဲငယ်၊ ချောင်းမြောင်းပစ်ခတ်မှုစတဲ့ အခြေအနေ တခုမဟုတ် တစ်ခုနဲ့ ကြုံတွေ့နေရပြီဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ စစ်ကိုင်းမှာ ၄၅ မြို့နယ်ရှိတဲ့အထဲက ၁၉ မြို့နယ်ဟာလည်း စစ်ဘေးအန္တရာယ်အောက်ကို ကျရောက်နေခဲ့ပြီးဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ပြည်သူ့ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်တွေ ထိန်းချုပ်ထားရာနေရာတွေကို လက်နက်ကြီးနဲ့ ပစ်ခတ်မှုတွေ၊ လေယာဉ်နဲ့ ဗုံးကြဲတာတွေ၊ နေအိမ်တွေ ရွာတွေကို မီးရှို့တာတွေ စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်က လုပ်နေခဲ့ပါတယ်။ တနိုင်ငံလုံး အတိုင်းအတာနဲ့ နေအိမ်ပေါင်း ၉၀,၀၀၀ ဝန်းကျင် မီးရှို့ခံခဲ့ရတဲ့အထဲမှာ စစ်ကိုင်းက ၆၀,၀၀၀ဝန်းကျင်ဖြစ်တယ်လို့ Data for Myanmar အဖွဲ့အစည်းရဲ့ အချက်အလက်တွေအရ သိရပါတယ်။

ဒီလိုအခြေအနေတွေနဲ့ ကြုံတွေ့နေရတဲ့စစ်ကိုင်းအတွက် သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်နဲ့ သစ်တောတွေကို ဂရုစိုက်နိုင်ဖို့ထက် လူတွေ မသေအောင်ဘဲ ပိုဂရုစိုက်နေရတယ်လို့ စစ်ကိုင်းပြည်သူ့အုပ်ချုပ်ရေးပိုင်းနဲ့ နီးစပ်သူတဦးက မဇ္ဈိမကို ပြောပါတယ်။ “လက်နက်ရဖို့က မလွယ်ဘူးဗျ။ ဒီလိုပဲ ရုန်းကန်ကြရတာ။ အရင်က သစ်ကုန်သည်တွေထဲက တချို့ဆို သေနတ်နဲ့ သစ်နဲ့ လဲပေးတာမျိုး ကမ်းလှမ်းတာတွေလည်း ရှိပါတယ်။ အကုန်တော့မဟုတ်ဘူး။ သစ်က တရုတ်ကို အများဆုံး သယ်နေတာ။ သစ်တောတွေ ကုန်တာတွေတော့ ဝမ်းနည်းတယ်ဗျာ။ ပြီးမှ ပြန်တည်ဆောက်ကြတာပေါ့ဗျာ” လို့ သူက ဆိုပါတယ်။

ဒီသစ်ထုတ်လုပ်မှုတွေဟာ ဒီနေရာတွေမှာသာမကဘဲ အာဆီယံအမွှေအနှစ်ဥယျာဉ်ရယ် သတ်မှတ်ထားတဲ့ အလောင်းတော်ကဿပသစ်တောမှာလည်း ဖြစ်နေခဲ့ပါတယ်။ အလောင်းတော် ကဿပအမျိုးသားဥယျာဉ်ဟာ စတုရန်းမိုင် ၅၄၀ ကျော် ကျယ်ဝန်းပြီး တိရစ္ဆာန်တွေကို ဘေးမဲ့ပေးရာတောလည်း ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အခုအချိန်မှာတော့ အဲ့ဒီက သစ်တောတွေလည်း ပြုန်းကုန်ပြီဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

“အာဏာသိမ်းပြီး လပိုင်းတွေအကြာမှာပေါ့။ တရက်တရက်ကို ကားတွေနဲ့ ခုတ်ပြီး သယ်ကြတာ မနည်းဘူး” လို့ မျက်မြင်တွေ့ခဲ့တဲ့ ဒေသခံတဦးက မဇ္ဈိမကို ပြောပါတယ်။ အလောင်းတော်ကဿပသစ်တောမှာ ကျွန်းသစ်နဲ့ သစ်မာတွေတွေ ပေါများပြီး အလောင်းတော်ကဿပနဲ့ မဝေးတဲ့ မဟာမြိုင်ကြိုးဝိုင်းမှာတော့ တရုတ်ဘက်က ကုန်သည်တွေကြိုက်တဲ့ တမလန်းသစ်တွေ အထွက်များပါတယ်။  တမလန်းသစ်မှာ အလွန်လှပတဲ့ အပွေးအရစ်လေးတွေ ရှိတာမို့ ပရိဘောဂ ထုတ်လုပ်သူများ အလွန်ဝယ်လိုအားများကြောင်းလည်း ဒေသခံတွေက ဆိုပါတယ်။

“သစ်ခိုးထုတ်တာတွေက အရင်တည်းက ရှိတယ်ဗျ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ ဒီလောက်တော့ စည်းမဲ့ကမ်းမဲ့ မဖြစ်ခဲ့ဘူး။ အခုက တိုင်းပြည်ပျက်သွားတာဗျ။ အလောင်းတော်ကဿပဆို အရမ်းဝမ်းနည်းဖို့ကောင်းတာ။ သစ်တောတွေကောင်း၊ တိရစ္ဆာန်တွေလည်း ခိုလှုံ၊ စစ်ကိုင်းရဲ့ သစ်တောဂေဟစနစ်အတွက်လည်း အဖိုးတန်ဗျာ။ အခုတော့ တော်တော်ထိခိုက်ကုန်တာပဲ” လို့ မန္တလေးမြို့မှာ နေထိုင်တဲ့ သစ်တောပညာရှင်တဦးက သုံးသပ်ပြပါတယ်။

 

Left: အလောင်းတော်ကဿပကြိုးဝိုင်းဧရိယာကို ၂၀၁၇ခုနှစ်တွင် ကောင်းကင်ဓာတ်ပုံမှမြင်ရပုံ
Right: အလောင်းတော်ကဿပကြိုးဝိုင်းဧရိယာကို ၂၀၂၃ ခုနှစ်တွင် ကောင်းကင်ဓာတ်ပုံမှမြင်ရပုံ. Photos: Mizzima

သစ်မှောင်ခိုထုတ်မှုတွေကသာ စစ်ကိုင်းရဲ့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ပျက်စီးမှုကို အကြီးအကျယ်ခြိမ်းခြောက်နေပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ စစ်ကိုင်းဟာ အရင်တည်းက သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ဆိုင်ရာ စိန်ခေါ်မှုတွေက ရှိနေခဲ့တာပါ။ အရင်က တရက်ကို အမေရိကန်ဒေါ်လာ နှစ်သန်းကျော်လောက် ဝင်ငွေရစေတဲ့ လက်ပံတောင်းတောင်ကြေးနီတောင် စီမံကိန်းဟာလည်း စစ်ကိုင်းရဲ့ စိန်ခေါ်မှုတခုပါပဲ။ ဒီစီမံကိန်းဟာ အာဏာသိမ်းပြီးတဲ့နောက်မှာ သိသာထင်ရှားစွာ လည်ပတ်နေတဲ့ အခြေအနေ မရှိတော့ပါဘူး။ ဒါပေမဲ့ စီမံကိန်းနယ်မြေရဲ့ အပြင်ဘက်အထိ ခြံစည်းရိုးတွေခက်တာတွေ လုပ်ခဲ့ပြီး ပြည်သူတွေရဲ့ အသက်အိုးအိမ်တွေကို ဖျက်ဆီးပစ်တာတွေ စစ်တပ်က လုပ်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ တဘက်မှာလည်းကြေးနီတွေကို စစ်တပ် အစောင့်အရှောက်နဲ့ သယ်ထုပ်တာ စီမံကိန်းကို စစ်ကောင်စီတပ်သားတွေက အကာအကွယ်ပေးတာတွေကြောင့် တော်လှန်ရေးတပ်တွေနဲ့ စစ်ကောင်စီ တပ်တွေကြားမကြာခဏ ပဋိပက္ခတွေ လည်းဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့ပါတယ်။

ကြေးနီးစီမံကိန်းလိုပဲ စစ်ကိုင်းတိုင်း ထီးချိုင့်မြို့နယ်ထဲက တကောင်းနီကယ်စက်ရုံဟာလည်း တရုတ်အတွက် အင်မတန်အရေးပါတဲ့ စက်ရုံဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ အဲ့ဒီစီမံကိန်းကလည်း ဒေသခံပြည်သူတွေကို နေရာရွှေ့ပြောင်းခိုင်းတာ၊ လူ့အခွင့်အရေး ချိုးဖောက်တာနဲ့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ထိခိုက်တာတွေကြောင့် နာမည်ဆိုးနဲ့ကျော်ကြားပါတယ်။  

ဒီစက်ရုံကို အမျိုးသားညီညွှတ်ရေးအစိုးရ (NUG) လက်အောက်မှာရှိတဲ့ ပြည်သူကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်တွေက ဇူလိုင်လကုန်က သိမ်းပိုက်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ တရုတ်အစိုးရကြောင့် ဒီစီမံကိန်းကို အကာကွယ်စောင့်ရှောက်ပေးမယ်လို့ တော်လှန်ရေးအစိုးရဘက်က အာမခံထားရပါတယ်။ ဒီအခြေအနေ ကိုကြည့်ရင် တရုတ်စီမံကိန်းတွေဟာ လူမူနဲ့သဘာဝ ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ကိုထိခိုက်ပေမဲ့  နိုင်ငံရေးအရ စီးပွားရေးအရ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံက ပဋိပက္ခမှာပါဝင်နေသူတွေက တရုတ်ကိုမလွန်ဆန်နိုင်တဲ့ အခြေအနေဟာပေါ်လွင်နေပါတယ်။

 

လက်ပံတောင်းတောင် ကြေးနီမိုင်းတွင်းပုံကို ကောင်းကင်မှမြင်ရပုံ. Photo: Mizzima

အာဏာသိမ်းမှုနောက်ပိုင်းမှာ အရင်က သဘာဝပတ်ဝန်းကျင်မှုထိခိုက်မှု၊ လူမှုဘဝထိခိုက်မှုတွေကြောင့် ရပ်တန့်ထားတဲ့ သံယံဲဇာတ စီမံကိန်းကြီးတွေ (အထူးသဖြင့်ကျောက်မီးသွေး တူးဖော်ရေး လုပ်ငန်း၊ ရေကာတာ စီမံကိန်းတွေ၊သံမဏိစက်ရုံတွေ၊သတ္တုတွင်းစီမံကိန်းတွေ) ဟာ အလျိုလျိုပြန်လည် စတင်ကြလာပါတယ်။

ဒီစီမံကိန်းတွေထဲမှာ တရုတ်နိုင်ငံက အကောင်အထည်ဖော်နေတဲ့စီမံကိန်းတွေ အများဆုံးဝင်ပြီး တီကျစ်ကျောက်မီးသွေးစီမံကိန်း၊ ပင်းပက် သံမဏိစက်ရုံ၊ ဘော်ဆိုင်းသတ္တုတွင်းတွေပြန်လည်စတင်ခဲ့သလို ပြည်သူတွေ အပြင်းအထန်ကန့်ကွက်ခဲ့တဲ့ ရေကာတာစီမံကိန်းကြီးတွေကို စတင်ဖို့ပြင်ဆင်လာကြပါတယ်။ ဒီလိုစီမံကိန်းတွေပြန်စတဲ့နေရာမှာ စစ်ကောင်စီသာမက တိုင်းရင်းသား လက်နက်ကိုင်တွေပါဝင်လာကြပါတယ်။

 

ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်ရှိ စီမံကိန်းများအခြေအနေ. Photo: Mizzima

အာဏာသိမ်းပြီး ရှုပ်ထွေးနေတဲ့ ပဋိပက္ခတွေကြောင့် အရင်ကစီမံကိန်းတွေနဲ့ပတ်သက်တဲ့ ဆိုးကျိုးတွေကို ပြည်သူသိအောင် လုပ်နေတဲ့၊ စီမံကိန်းတွေကို ကန့်ကွက်ဖို့ဦး ဆောင်နေတဲ့ ဒေသခံလူထုအခြေပြုအဖွဲ့အစည်းတွေဟာလည်း နေရပ်စွန့်ခွာ ထွက်ပြေးရတဲ့အပြင် လက်နက်ကိုင်တွေရဲ့ချိန်းခြောက်မှုတွေကြောင့် နူတ်ဆိတ်နေရတဲ့အနေအထားတွေနဲ့ နေထိုင်နေရတာကြောင့် စီမံကိန်းတွေကို ပေါ်ပေါ်ထင်ထင်ပဲ လုပ်နိုင်တဲ့အခြေအနေ ဖြစ်သွားပါတယ်။ ရှမ်းမြောက်မှာ ပြီးခဲ့နှစ် အောက်တိုဘာလမှာစတင် ဖြစ်ပွားခဲ့တဲ့ စစ်ဆင်ရေး ၁၀၂၇ နောက်ပိုင်းမှာတော့ မဟာဗျူဟာကျ တရုတ်စီမံကိန်းတွေ ရဲ့နေရာတော်တော်များများကို မြောက်ပိုင်းက တော်လှန်ရေးမဟာမိတ်အဖွဲ့တွေ ထိန်းချုပ်မိသွားပါတယ်။ ဒီအဖွဲ့တွေဟာ တရုတ်ရဲ့သြဇာ မလွတ်ကင်းဘူးလို့ လူသိများကြပြီး နောက်ပိုင်းမှာ ဒီစီမံကိန်းတွေဟာ  သက်ဆိုင်ရာတပ်ဖွဲ့တွေနဲ့ လက်သိပ်ထိုးပြီးမှ လုပ်နိုင်တဲ့  အခြေအနေတွေကို ရောက်သွားခဲ့ပါတယ်။  

“လူထုကိုအကာအကွယ်ပေးမယ့် Rule of Law (တရားဥပဒေစိုးမိုးမှု) က ဒီအချိန်မှာ ဘာမှရှိမနေဘူး။ လူထုက ဥပဒေရဲ့အကာအကွယ်မှာရှိမနေဘူးဆိုတော့ စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းရှင်တွေက လက်ဝါးကြီးအုပ်တာတွေ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးချိူးဖောက်တာတွေရှိတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ လူထုကအသံထွက်လို့မရတော့တဲ့အခြေအနေ” လို့ လက်ရှိရှမ်းပြည်မှာ ဖြစ်နေတဲ့ စီမံကိန်းတွေနဲ့ ပတ်သက်ပြီး ရှမ်းပြည်အခြေစိုက် သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်အရေးလှုပ်ရှားသူတဦးက ဆိုပါတယ်။ ယခုနှစ်များအတွင်း တရုတ်ဘက်မှာ သတ္တုတူးဖော်ရေး ကုမ္ပဏီများက ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်အတွင်း ဝင်ရောက်လုပ်ကိုင်နေသော်လည်း ဒေသခံပြည်သူတို့အတွက် သိသင့်တဲ့အချက်အလက်များကို အမှောင်ချထားတယ်လို့ သူက ဆိုပါတယ်။

“တိုင်းပြည်က ပျက်နေတော့ လက်နက်ရှိတဲ့စစ်တပ်နဲ့ အင်အားကြီးတဲ့ သူတွေက သူတို့အကျိုးအမြတ်အတွက်ပဲ လုပ်ကုန်ရော။ သာမန်ပြည်သူတွေအတွက်ကတော့ စိုက်ပျိုးစားလို့ မရတာတွေ၊ သဘာ၀ ဘေးအန္တရာယ်ဆိုးကျိုးခံရတာတွေ ထပ်ဖြစ်နေဦးမှာပဲ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ အခုအချိန်မှာ အသက်ဘေးက ပိုအရေးကြီးတယ်” လို့ ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်မှ ဒေသခံစစ်ဘေးရှောင်လူငယ်တဦးက ဆိုပါတယ်။

ISP- Myanmar အဖွဲ့အစည်းရဲ့ သုသေသနတွေ့ရှိချက်တွေအရ ရှမ်းပြည်အတွင်းမှာ တရုတ်ဘက်က အကောင်အထည်ဖော်ဖို့ ပြင်ဆင်ထားတာတွေရော၊ လက်ရှိအနေအထားမှာ အကောင်အထည် ဖော်နေတာရော ပေါင်းလိုက်မယ်ဆိုရင် စုစုပေါင်း အမေရိကန်ဒေါ်လာ ၂၃ ဘီလီယံကျော်လောက် ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ဒီပမာဏဟာ တရုတ်ရဲ့ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအတွင်း မြှုပ်နှံမှုတန်ဖိုးရဲ့ ထက်ဝက်ခန့်ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

ဘယ်လိုကုစားကြမလဲ

စစ်ကောင်စီဟာ လက်ရှိအချိန်မှာတော့ စစ်ရေးအကြပ်အတည်းရော၊ စီးပွားရေးအကြပ်အတည်းပါ ရင်ဆိုင်ကြုံတွေ့နေရတာဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ကုန်သွယ်လမ်းကြောင်းများစွာကနေ ဝင်ငွေတွေရခဲ့တဲ့ စစ်ကောင်စီဟာ လက်ရှိအချိန်မှာတော့ တရုတ်၊ အိန္ဒိယ၊ ဘင်္ဂလားဒေ့ရှ်နဲ့ ထိုင်းစတဲ့ ကုန်သွယ်မှုစီးဆင်းတဲ့နိုင်ငံတွေနဲ့ ချိတ်ဆက်နေတဲ့ ကုန်သွယ်ဂိတ်တွေ၊ နယ်စပ်ဧရိယာတွေများစွာကို ဆုံးရှုံးခဲ့ပြီးလည်း ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။

၁၀၂၇ စစ်ဆင်ရေးနောက်ပိုင်း ဒီလိုမျိုး ကုန်သွယ်ဂိတ်တွေ ဆုံးရှုံးလာခဲ့တာဖြစ်ပြီး လက်ရှိအခြေ အနေမှာတော့ အရေးကြီးတဲ့ ကုန်သွယ်ဂိတ် ငါးခုကို လက်လွတ်ခဲ့ရပါတယ်။  မြန်မာနိုင်ငံရဲ့ နယ်စပ်ကုန်သွယ်ရေးပိုင်းမှာ ကုန်သွယ်ဂိတ်ပေါင်း ၁၇ ခုရှိတဲ့အထဲက အဲ့ဒီ ငါးဂိတ်ဟာ စုစုပေါင်း ကုန်သွယ်မှုရဲ့ ၄၀ ရာခိုင်နှုန်းအထိနီးပါး ကုန်စည်စီးဆင်းမှု အားကောင်းတဲ့ ဂိတ်တွေလည်း ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။ ထိုင်း-မြန်မာနယ်စပ်က မြ၀တီဂိတ်ကို စစ်ကောင်စီက လက်လွတ်ခဲ့ရပေမဲ့ ကရင်နယ်ခြားစောင့်တပ်နဲ့အတူ ပြန်လည် ထိန်းချုပ် နိုင်ခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ အရင်ကလို ကုန်သွယ်စီးဆင်းမှုအားကောင်းတဲ့ အခြေအနေမျိုး ပြန်မရရှိသေးပါဘူး။ တချို့သော ကုန်သွယ်ဂိတ်တွေဟာလည်း စစ်ကောင်စီရဲ့ ထိန်းချုပ်မှု အောက်မှာ ရှိနေသေးတယ်ဆိုပေမဲ့ ကုန်စည်စီးဆင်းမှုတော့ ရပ်တန့်နေပါတယ်။

အာဏာသိမ်းစဉ်ကာ ၂၀၂၁ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၁ မှာ ဒေါ်လာစျေးဟာ ကျပ် ၁၃၃၀ ဝန်းကျင်သာရှိခဲ့ပေမဲ့ လက်ရှိအချိန်မှာတော့ ကျပ် ၆၀၀၀ ကျော်လာခဲ့ပါပြီ။ ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ ဇွန်လက ထုတ်ပြန်ခဲ့တဲ့ World Bank ရဲ့ အစီရင်ခံစာမှာလည်း ပဋိပက္ခတွေ၊ အလုပ်သမား ရှားပါးမှုတွေ၊ ငွေကြေးတန်ဖိုး မငြိမ်သက်မှုတွေကြောင့် မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ စီးပွားရေးလုပ်ငန်းတွေ လုပ်ကိုင်ဖို့ ခက်ခဲလွန်းနေကြောင်း ထောက်ပြခဲ့ပါတယ်။ ၂၀၂၃-၂၄ မှာ ဆင်းရဲမွဲတေမှုက ပြီးခဲ့တဲ့ ခြောက်နှစ်အတွင်းမှာ အမြင့်ဆုံးဖြစ်လာခဲ့တယ်လို့ ဆိုပါတယ်။

တနိုင်ငံလုံးအတိုင်းအတာနဲ့ ဒီလိုမျိုးစီးပွားရေးအရ ချွတ်ခြုံကျနေတဲ့ အခြေအနေမှာ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ပျက်စီးမှုနဲ့ သယံဇာတဆုံးရှုံးမှုတွေအကြောင်းဟာ အရေးတယူလုပ် တင်ပြကြဖို့ ကုစားကြဖို့  လိုအပ်နေပါလား၊ ဒီထက်ပိုအရေးကြီးတဲ့အကြောင်းအရာတွေက ပိုရှိနေတာမဟုတ်ဘူးလားဆိုတဲ့ ယူဆချက်တွေက ခုခံစစ် ဆင်နွှဲနေသူတွေဘက်မှာလည်း ရှိနေပါတယ်။ ဒါပေမဲ့ ပဋိပက္ခတွေနဲ့အတူ အကျိုးစီးပွား ရယူနေသူတွေကြောင့် သယံဇာတဆုံးရှုံးမှုကတော့ အဖက်ဆယ်ဖို့ ခက်ခဲနေခဲ့ပါပြီလို့ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ပညာရှင်တဦးက ဆိုပါတယ်။

“တကယ်က ဘာမှ လုပ်လို့ မရတော့ဘူးဗျ။ သေသေချာချာ မွေးမြူရင်တောင် အချိန်အကြာကြီး လုပ်ရမှာလေ။ အခုက ဘာမှကို လုပ်လို့ မရတော့ဘူး။ တရုတ်ကလည်း ရသလောက် ဝယ်နေတာ” လို့ ၎င်းက ဆိုပါတယ်။

လက်ရှိအချိန်မှာတော့ ကချင်က မြေရှားဟာ တရုတ်ဆီကိုပဲ ဦးတည်နေရသလို၊ စစ်ကိုင်းနဲ့ ပဲခူးရိုးမက သစ်တွေရဲ့ အများဆုံးလားရာဟာလည်း တရုတ်ဆီပဲ ဖြစ်နေခဲ့ပါတယ်။

“တော်လှန်ရေးဆင်နွှဲနေသူတွေထဲမှာ  သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ကို နားမလည်တဲ့သူတွေချည်း မဟုတ်ဘူး။ တချို့က အတော့်ကို သိတာ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ လက်နက်လိုအပ်ချက်၊ ငွေကြေးလိုအပ်ချက်တွေ ရှိလာတဲ့အပေါ်မှာ ဒီလမ်းကိုပဲ ရွေးကြရတော့တာ။ အဲ့ဒါကြောင့် အဖက်ဆယ်ဖို့ ခက်ခဲသွားပြီလို့ ပြောချင်တာ” လို့ အဆိုပါ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင် ပညာရှင်က ရှင်းပြပါတယ်။

တရုတ်ဘက်ကလည်း တော်လှန်ရေးမှာ ဩဇာရှိတဲ့အခြေအနေတစ်ရပ်ကို မိမိရရ ဆုပ်ကိုင်ထားနိုင် တာဖြစ်ပြီး တရုတ်သူဌေးတွေဟာ ဒီအခြေအနေတွေပေါ်မှာ အကောင်းဆုံးချယ်လှယ်နေနိုင်တာ တွေ့ရတယ်လို့ စစ်ကိုင်းတော်လှန်ရေးနဲ့ နီးစပ်သူတဦးက ဆိုပါတယ်။ တရုတ်ဘက်ကို ရောင်းတဲ့ သစ်တွေကနေရတဲ့ ငွေကြေးဟာလည်း လက်နက်ဝယ်ယူဖို့အတွက် အများကြီးအထောက်အကူဖြစ် တယ်လို့ ဆိုပါတယ်။

“သစ်ကားတွေလည်း နေတိုင်း ကချင်ဘက်ကနေ တရုတ်ကို ထွက်နေတာ။ ဘယ်အဖွဲ့မဆို သူတို့ထိန်းထားတဲ့နေရာက သစ်တွေကို တရုတ်သူဌေးတွေဆီ ရောင်းလိုက်ရုံပဲ။ သယ်တာတွေ၊ လမ်းကြောင်းရှင်းတာတွေ သူတို့ပဲ တာဝန်ယူလုပ်တယ်” လို့ သူက ပြောပြပါတယ်။

မြန်မာနိုင်ငံမှာ သဘာ၀ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်ကို ကောင်းမွန်စွာထိန်းသိမ်း​ရေးနဲ့ သဘာ၀သယံဇာတတွေအပေါ် မူဝါဒခိုင်ခိုင်မာမာနဲ့ စီမံခန့်ခွဲအသုံးပြုနိုင်ဖို့ဆိုတဲ့ ခရီးဟာ အမြဲတစေ စိန်ခေါ်မှုတွေနဲ့ ပြည့်နှက်နေခဲ့တာပါ။ ဒါပေမဲ့ ဒီတကြိမ်ကြုံတွေ့ရတဲ့ ပုဒ်စာကတော့ အတော့်ကို ခက်ခဲလွန်းတယ်လို့ ဆိုရပါမယ်။ နိုင်ငံရေး အလှည့်အပြောင်း၊ တော်လှန်ရေးရဲ့ အလင်းရောင်စတဲ့ မျှော်လင့်ချက်တွေကြားထဲမှာ ကိုယ့်အသား ကိုယ်ပြန်လှီး ကြသလို၊ ကိုယ့်ဘ၀တွေ ကိုယ့်ကိုယ်တိုင် ပြန်ပစ်ချကြသလိုမျိုး သယံဇာတတွေ ရင်းနှီးပြီး အဖြေရှာရတဲ့ အခြေအနေတွေဟာ ဆက်သွားနေဦးမှာပဲ ဖြစ်ပါတယ်။