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MCRB Discusses Beach Sand Mining in Ngwesaung with Pathein Township Officials
On 20 June, Vicky Bowman, Director, and Wai Phyo Myint, Regional Outreach Manager visited Pathein for a discussion of the problems of beach sand mining in Ngwesaung with the Township General Administration Department head and a number of Pathein township officials, including from Ngwesaung and Chaungtha.
The meeting was held at the invitation of Pathein GAD after MCRB had submitted letters to the office of the State Counsellor, and to the Anti-Corruption Commission in January 2017, following the observation of continuous sand mining on the beaches around Ngwesaung Yacht Club in December 2016/January 2017. MCRB contacts were told by a truck driver that it was possible to take unlimited amounts of sand from the beach on the basis of a 30,000 MMK monthly payment to Ngwesaung GAD.
MCRB’s presentation addressed the harmful effects of beach sand mining from a construction safety and ecosystem services perspective. Sand is not a renewable resource. Disrupting beach profiles through sand mining accelerates beach erosion and reduces the protection that a beach offers against storm surge. Furthermore, it destroys Ngwesaung’s main asset for sustainable tourism. Beach sand mining in Ngapali is already resulting in erosion and increasing numbers of exposed rocks on previously sandy beaches. This phenomenon of beach stealing has also been observed internationally.
Myanmar laws banning beach sand mining need to be revised following the adoption of the 2012 Environmental Conservation Law. Interdictions are currently based on the 2006 Conservation of Water Resources and Rivers Law which has been used to fine sandminers in Ngapali, and the 2004 Coastal Beach Directives from the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism which have been converted by Ngapali GAD into an Administrative Order for the area.
MCRB was informed that Pathein GAD had issued similar Administrative Orders to protect the beach, but that the stretch of beach concerned in Ngwesaung had been excluded from protection and regulation, due to local requests to extract sand. This extraction, MCRB was told by Ngwesaung officials, was permitted on the basis of a 30,000 kyats per month ‘donation’ to local development funds.
In discussion, MCRB highlighted concerns not only in this case, but also countrywide, that ‘donations’ were becoming the common term for payments to government officials which had no basis in law. Indeed, this has been one of the reasons that MCRB has advocated against an emphasis on compulsory ‘CSR budgets’ having noted that these funds are often, in fact, used for local pay-offs.
MCRB has followed up the discussion with a letter (see English translation) about the need to establish legal options for state/region/local government fundraising for local development priorities, and the scope to use new opportunities under the amended Schedules of the Constitution adopted in December 2015.
