Mudon Township Administration has met with local farmers on three different occasions, wherein they discussed the construction of a road connecting Khatonbaw Village to Balauk Village, reaching the Khatonbaw Deep Seaport area.
“We did not know that they will pave this new road. And if they do, they will do it at once. Once they do, this will cause farmers difficulties,” said a local farmer from Mudon Township.
The farmer continued that local farmers were not informed when the authorities came to mark land for road construction.
According to a farmer from Nyaung-Wom , Balauk [Nyaung-Wom] and Khatonbaw village[s] administrators met with local farmers earlier this month to inform them that the road must be constructed this year and that there will not be any compensation issued to the farmers for lands used for the road.
As Nyaung-Wom area farmer Daw Kyi explains, despite local authorities having marked farmland for road construction, farmers refuse to provide their signatures to approve the project because no compensation will be delivered.
“If they paved the road straight, my farm will be [the most farmland] taken in the area,” said Daw Kyi.
Daw Kyi stated that farmers depend on farming for their livelihoods, and if they are not provided compensation they will face tremendous difficulties.
Once the road is paved, she continued, salt water from the sea will run onto farmlands and other areas. The impending road construction will divide the farms into two sides, severely reducing farmers’ income as they will be left with fewer acres to farm.
At last November’s development conference focusing on the development of Moulmein into the country’s third biggest city, Yarzar Min Company stated that once the road connects the villages in the area, the Khatonbaw Deep Seaport will be completed by the end of 2015.
