The proposed Ta Sang Dam will be located in southern Shan State in Burma. If completed, it will be the tallest dam in Southeast Asia at 188 meters high, and will store approximately one third of the average annual flow of the Salween River, which is 2,400 km in length and remains the last major non-dammed river in Southeast Asia. The purpose of the Ta Sang Dam is to provide hydroelectric power for Burma and Thailand; it is projected to generate 2,400-4,000 MW of energy a year, 1,500MW of which will go to Thailand. GMS Power Public proposes to fund the dam and share its ownership with the Burmese government. The projected costs of the project exceed US $ 3 billion. Dam construction is scheduled to begin from 2003; the dam will be operational in 2008. .
Research Design: Doin" it Together.
At our first meeting, we decided to explore the politics of dam building in Burma; the Ta Sang Dam project seemed to be the most prominent, and also had the most accessible information. We divided the responsibility of our group equally, allowing each person to specialize in one issue. Individually we studied the history of the Shan, past and present international investments in Burma, possible ecological and social impacts of the dam, and NGO responses to the dam project. Each of us contributed our individual insight to develop the final conclusions and recommendations. .
While designing the PowerPoint, we again met as a group and designed our personal slides. In person and over blitz, we reworked the slides into our final presentation. We then met to practice and fine-tune the presentation. For the paper, we each contributed approximately 1.5 to 2 pages of information on our respective topics. During the editing process, we were forced to reduce some sections of the paper due to overlapping, and the significance of the topic in the interests of space.
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Ta Sang Dam and Shan History .
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC, formerly SLORC) and Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Power Public Co.
