Dam Specifications | Companies Involved | Finance | Project Status | Impacts

The Tasang Dam is the biggest of the five proposed for the Salween River. If built it will be the highest dam in Southeast Asia, taller than China’s massive Three Gorges Dam. Burma’s military regime initially signed deals with Thailand’s MDX Group for implementation of the Tasang Dam in Shan State. Amidst rumors of dissatisfaction with MDX, the China Gezhouba Group Co. won a contract for initial dam construction in early 2007. In mid-2008, Sinohydro, China Southern Power Grid Co., and China Three Gorges Project Corporation signed an agreement for the development of the Salween River Basin in Burma, mentioning the Tasang Dam in particular.

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Chinese
China Gezhouba Group Co.
Sinohydro Corporation
China Southern Power Grid Co.
China Three Gorges Project Corporation
Changjiang Survey, Planning Design & Research Co.,Ltd

British
Malcolm Dunstan & Associates

Finance
The initial estimated cost of constructing the Tasang Dam was 6 billion USD. However the actual costs are now likely to be far higher. Income generated from the sale of the electricity generated by the dam will depend on the annual production and the buying price. A power purchase agreement has yet to be signed.

Electricity – where will it go?
Most of the electricity from the Ta Sang Dam is intended for sale to Thailand.

Project Status - Last updated September 2008
The official ground-breaking ceremony for the dam was held in March 2007, and was hosted by China Gezhouba Group and MDX. However, since the ceremony, actual construction of the dam has been stalled, and there has been little activity at the dam-site. Those who are currently living in the dam’s floodplain have been neither been informed nor consulted about the dam plans. Residents of Mong Ton, near the Tasang site, have been informed of the dam plans, but given no opportunity to voice their concerns and no information about the negative consequences of a 7,110 MW dam.

Impacts
The Tasang Dam is located in the midst of active conflict in Shan State, and tens of thousands of ethnic peoples living near the dam site and floodplain have been forcibly relocated and subjected to abuses from the Burma Army.

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