Gas Pipeline Explosion

DVB ( 20 October, 2003 )

There had been a violent explosion at the section near Kwanla Village on the natural gas pipeline which connects Kanbauk region of Tenesserim Division with Myaing Galay cement factory in Karen State.

There is no report of injury but considerable amount of paddyfileds were detroyed and villagers had to endure and breathe the noxious gas which permeated into the atmosphere across the village. Moreover, local people are living in fear as it is the second time the pipeline exploded in the area.

DVB's Maung Too reports:

Maung Too : The explosion occured on the western side of Kwanla near a bridge and it created a big hole more than a metre deep, and the noxious gas escaped into the atmosphere. Naing Chan Mon of Independent Mon News Agency based in Mon State said that because of the explosion, villagers had to flee from their houses in the middle of the night and the smell of gas could be sensed to the next evening. The SPDC not only confiscated farms from local Karen and Mon villagers when it planned to build the pipeline, the regime has been forcing them to repair and look after it. There had been a similar explosion in 2002 and recently, there was another explosion at nearby Yaylamaing Village on the 8th of October. Naing Chan Mon added that people are living in fear and they feel that there is nothing good for them in the pipeline project. The villagers haven't seen any result from the promise of the regime that all the villages along the pipeline will get eletricity when it is finished. The pipeline not only fails to help the villagers, it is endangeringtheir lives, he insisted.