" Environmentalists, scientists, writers and monks called for the cancellation of the Myitsone dam at a meeting in Yangon on Monday, at which a committee was formed to fight for the termination of the US$3.6 billion, China-backed project. The meeting came amid pressure from Beijing for work to resume on the dam and followed State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s March 20 comment that the 6,000MW project needed to be considered from “a wider perspective”. Work on the dam, on the Ayeyarwady River about 42 kilometres upstream from the Kachin State capital Myitkyina, was suspended by President U Thein Sein in September 2011 amid escalating and emotionally charged protests against the project. A joint venture between China’s State Power Investment Corporation and a Myanmar conglomerate, Asia World, began work on the dam in 2009 under a memorandum of understand signed by the ruling military junta and the Chinese government three years earlier. An agreement provided for most of the power generated by the massive dam, which would inundate an area as big as Singapore and displace thousands of people, to be exported to China. Speakers at the April 1 meeting included retired government meteorologist and founder of Myanmar Climate Change Watch, Dr Tun Lwin, 71, who challenged one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s March 20 comments about the project. The State Counsellor was quoted as saying that if her National League for Democracy government broke promises made by a previous administration, it would lose credibility with investors. Tun Lwin said there were examples of governments not keeping promises for the sake of their people and the national interest, citing the decision by the Malaysian government to cancel China-backed infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars. “I want the government to listen to the people and cancel the Myitsone project,” he said. “Otherwise I believe the future will not be pleasant.” In his speech Tun Lwin said he did not support the Myitsone dam because the Ayeyarwady River was more important than Myanmar itself. Global warming was already leading to water shortages, he said, and blocking the flow of the river would endanger the country’s future access to water. The former director-general of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology also expressed regret that his warnings about the impact of climate change on Myanmar were largely ignored. “Sadly, no one has listened enough, especially government officials. This is the fate of our country,” said Tun Lwin, adding that the average temperature in Myanmar had risen by about 1.4 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years..."