N 58            The abused Salween (Part 1  )

The  Salween is the biggest river in the Shan State. It enters the Shan State near Kunlong at the far north of the  State , flows along the whole length of it, passes the Kayah State and enters the Gulf of Martaban in the Mon State.

Along its way there are many waterfalls and sometimes passes along narrow gorges and rough waterways that it cannot  be used widely for navigation. But anyway having a river is better than having none and there are many ways to use it beneficially for the livelihood of the people.

One thing for sure is that it contains the precious metal ‘’gold ‘’in its water. I have heard people speaking about Salween gold which  they  called  Kham Kone when I was  young. I have seen gold dust in a stream which flows into the Salween at Hsen Mong. But our people who are not so industrious and lacking knowledge does not know how to extract gold from the river except the panning system which yields only a small amount .

So the Salween with its gold riches became a feast for the Chinese to dine on. With the lack of the rule of law and widely spread of corruption Chinese boats started  to appear on the waters of Salween some years ago but at what part I don’t know exactly.I heard that they came down from the upper part of the river. When they started to appear  around Takaw people said there were hundreds of them. Each was as big as a house and fitted with all kinds of machinery and gears to dig the river bed and bring up the silt and extract gold from them. Surely mercury and and cyanide had to be used in this process and so it is needless to say that the water was polluted to  harm the environment and aquatic creatures in them.

 

Now the river is no longer like it used to be. They manipulated the river as they like and piles of stones and silt deposits can be seen on the surface where there were none before they came. The colour of the water that used to be a little yellowish but clear in summer is not like that now. When I saw it a few days ago, the colour was like thick coffee and the whole river has lost its attractiveness.

to part 2…..