MAE HONG SON, Thailand — The shores of Myanmar became visible from Sob Moei village in northeastern Thailand as the morning mist rises over the Salween River, the flowing water the only border between Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province and Myanmar’s Kayin state. Flowing nearly 3,300 kilometers (about 2,000 miles) from Tibet, south through China and Myanmar, before joining the Andaman Sea, the Salween River is Asia’s longest free-flowing river. Home to more than 200 species of fish, a quarter of which are estimated to be found nowhere else in the world, and irrigating vast tracts of farmland, the Salween is a vital resource that provides food security, livelihoods, as well as drinking and bathing water to largely Indigenous communities across three countries. Devoid of the hydropower dams that have choked the Mekong River and its tributaries, the Salween unites farmers and fishers in Thailand and Myanmar more than it divides them. But planned dams on the Myanmar stretch of the river mean its free-flowing nature is far from guaranteed. “We get our food from the river, so if the Salween River is dammed or developed, it will definitely impact our families,” said Naw K’nyaw Paw, secretary-general of the Karen Women’s Organization, speaking at a protest against dams at Sob Moei on March 14. Hundreds of Karen protesters light candles to bless the Salween River and protect it from hydropower dam construction. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. At least 20 dams have been proposed or planned along the Salween,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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