Amnesty International Calls For Relocation of Sulfuric Acid Plant in Northwestern Myanmar

An international rights group called on the Myanmar government on Wednesday to immediately relocate a sulfuric acid factory situated close to a village, which continues to operate despite serious concerns about its health and environmental effects.

London-based Amnesty International said residents of Kankone village, Salingyi township, in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, told the group in June that emissions from the Moe Gyo Sulfuric Acid Factory are causing respiratory, skin and eye problems.

They also said high levels of sulfate from the emissions have damaged crops.

“Myanmar’s government must intervene immediately and stop the operations of the sulfuric acid factory,” said the group’s international business and human rights researcher Mark Dummett in a statement. “The factory must be relocated to an area where it can’t endanger anybody’s health.”

State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi headed an investigative committee in 2013 that looked into the nine-year-old factory which supplies sulfuric acid to two copper mines—Letpadaung, and the Sabetaung and Kyisintaung mines, Amnesty said.

“The committee found that the company that runs the factory had built it without securing permission from local authorities,” it said.

The Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (UMEHL), owned by the country’s powerful military, subsequently received permission to keep the factory running in July 2013, Amnesty said.

UMEHL runs both the mines as joint ventures with China’s Wanbao Mining Copper Limited Company.

Full story: rfa.org

Reported by Zarni Htun and Kyaw Lwin Oo for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.