Chinese company consults locals over Mekong blasting
The red-robed monk sat impatiently at the front of the consultation meeting in Chiang Saen, northern Thailand. Once the representatives from China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) had finished their presentation he stood up and scolded them for taking too long. He disputed their description of the Thai-Lao-Myanmar stretch of the Mekong as “primitive”. “Thammachat [the natural system and state of the river] is not undeveloped,” he asserted. “It is rich. To do this to the river without answering the concerns of local people would be the same as stealing.”
