While Optimistic About the Nu River’s Future, Chinese Women Environmentalists Also Face Government Clampdown

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While Optimistic About the Nu River’s Future, Chinese Women Environmentalists Also Face Government Clampdown

By Hannah, MK31 Fellow

Chinese politics and civil society can seem both complex and difficult to understand for outsiders. However, my curiosity to better understand what is happening in the world’s rising superpower led me to choose women’s civil society in China as the focus for my fellowship research on water governance on the Salween River (known as the Nu or Nujiang in China).

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Local Voices Still to Be Heard In Wan Hsala Village, Shan State

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Local Voices Still to Be Heard In Wan Hsala Village, Shan State

By Hnin Wut Yee, MK31 Fellow

Wan Hsala is a secluded village along the Wan Hsala Stream housing a little over 30 households with a total population of approximately 100. As one of the small villages along the Salween River in the Eastern Shan state, the majority of its villagers are part of the Shan ethnic minority, while a few are ethnic Lisu and Bamar. Today, these villagers are facing actual and potential negative impacts from a hydropower construction project started about a decade ago. The local villager's limited knowledge of their rights and their lack of participation in the project have caused them to be taken advantage of. It is crucial that a solid framework of national and international standards reinforced with a strict enforcement vehicle is in place before any further project decisions are made.

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