Myanmar hydropower SEA draft Baseline Assessment Report now available for public comment

Yangon, Myanmar –  June 8, 2017: Myanmar hydropower SEA draft Baseline Assessment Report now available for public comment

*UPDATE: The deadline for public review has been extended to 20 July 2017

The draft Baseline Assessment Report for the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Hydropower Sector in Myanmar is now available for public review. The document (presented in eight separate chapters) will be available from today (8 June) until 22 June 2017. Following this review period, the baseline chapters will undergo a final round of revisions and comments will be included in the annex. The release of the draft chapters follows on a series of national, basin and local level stakeholder consultations, during which sustainability principles and key themes were refined in order to identify the key strategic environmental and social issues for each river basin.

The SEA comprises three main phases:

• Scoping and baseline assessment
• Impact assessment and sustainability analysis
• Mitigation and recommendations

The scoping and baseline assessment phase led to the preparation of three volumes:
1. Stakeholder Engagement Plan
2. Regional River Basin Consultations – Key Findings
3. Baseline Assessment Report

The draft Baseline Assessment Report, which is now available for review, consists of the following chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Hydropower
Chapter 3: Geomorphology and sediment transport
Chapter 4: Biodiversity
Chapter 5: Aquatic ecology and fisheries
Chapter 6: Economic development and land use
Chapter 7: Social and livelihoods
Chapter 8: Conflict