The Gulf of Mottama Project successfully conducted a video documentary launching event and press conference at Orchid Hotel, Yangon, on June 24, 2019. The event was attended by representatives from Bago Government, academia, NGOs, INGOs, Civil Society Organizations, erosion-affected communities, and the media.
The objective of organizing this event was to create a platform for the communities to voice the challenges they face due to their villages and farmland being destroyed by erosion along the Sittaung Riverbank.
The “Chased by the Tides” documentary was produced by Gulf of Mottama Project in collaboration with Mon News Agency.
Since 2013, coastal erosion in Kawa and Thanatpin townships in the Eastern part of Bago Region has claimed tens of thousands of acres of farmlands; more than twelve villages had to be relocated. Over 10,000 people were internationally displaced, without sufficient support from the government or internal aid.
The internally displaced populations face many hardships in the new resettlement areas. Drinking water, school buildings, the need for permanent resettlement areas, and lack of livelihood opportunities are their main concerns, as mentioned by U Hla Nagwe, Ma Mauk village administrator, during the press conference.
To understand the devastation, the Gulf of Mottama Project contracted Arcadis, renowned for expertise in coastal morphology, to research and document these natural changes.
Arcadis concluded that this erosion has nothing to do with climate changes or man-made disasters. This effect is caused by nature itself when the tidal channel shifts from the Bago Region or Mon State and results in the land shifting from one place and depositing in another place.
Dr. Min Aung Pan from Bago University and team leader of a GoMP-supported study on erosion-affected communities concluded that the majority of the communities living in the coastal area, experienced riverbank erosion in the past and were affected several times by internal migration.
He further explained, these communities are likely to resettle themselves not too far away from the coast as their major livelihood relies on fisheries and agriculture.
The documentary aims to raise awareness of the Government, INGOs, donor agencies, Civil Society Organizations, and the media, on the situation of these villages and their basic needs.
The Gulf of Mottama Project is a project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and is implemented by a consortium led by HELVETAS, Network Activity Group, International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It had been initiated since April 2015. The project works at eight townships in Mon State and Eastern Bago Region for 60 villages within the location of 10 Kilometer from coastline.