(News article and photo
direct from the Eleven Media on December 17, 2013.)
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| Irrawaddy River and the Delta. |
Our great river Irrawaddy is flowing sluggish
and thus carrying down fewer tons of silt downstream every year and the disturbing
result is clearly seen in the Delta for well over two decades. Our seemingly ever-expanding
Irrawaddy Delta has stopped expanding and even losing average five square-miles
per year to the rising sea since 1990.
According to Professor Maung Maung Aye
the Riverine Geological Expert holding a seminar at the “Public Forum for Strategic Environmental Valuation of Irrawaddy River Basin”
held at Rangoon University’s Judson (Yuu-da-than) Centre, Irrawaddy Delata is
losing 13 Sq-Km (5 Sq-miles) a year average from the dual causes of lower flow
from Irrawaddy and rising sea level in the Gulf of Martaban (Moat-ta-ma).
According to Professor Maung Maung Aye
his intensive studies of Irrawaddy Basin and the Delta shows that between 1925
and 1989 Irrawaddy had had a high rate of silt delivery to the Delta and the
result is 8.7 Square Km per year average creation of new land in the Delta. But
after 1990 till 2006 the rate of silt delivery from the dwindling Irrawaddy
slowed down substantially while soil erosion from the rising sea level had accelerated.
“Just from the Delta’s land-area point of view there were two
distinctive periods. From 1925 to 1989, because of silt settling from the
Irrawaddy, the land area in Delta increased average 8.7 Sq-Km a year. Sea was
basically pushed back down further south. But later the trend reverses and sea
has been eating away the land from the southern end of Irrawaddy Delta since
1990,” said Professor Maung Maung Aye.
“Right now we are in the period of sea eating away the land. It started
from 1990 and by 2006 the rate of land erosion becomes so much greater. It is
like a never-ending battle between the giant river and the sea. From 1925 to
1989 the high-flowing river was winning and that was the only reason our Delta
was expanding steadily. But, right now the sea has been winning as the river
flow is gradually dwindling and the result is the Delta retreating back at the
average rate of 13 Sq-Km a year,” added Professor Maung Maung Aye.
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| The Confluence of Irrawaddy and Myitsone Dam. |
“In other words, the quantity of river water reaching to the Delta is
becoming less and less every year since 1990. The main reason is the building
of so many flow restrictions like dams
and river-water pumping stations upstream along the Irrawaddy. Not just the
main river but also the tributaries flowing into Irrawaddy. Chin-dwin River is
one of them. Right now there is not a single dam on the Irrawaddy yet, but her
tributaries have so many dams on them. Natural flow has been severely disturbed
by all those restrictions,” continued Professor Maung maung Aye.
He also commented that since there are
so many foreign-direct-investment projects starting on the valley plain of
Irrawaddy their environmental impacts should be studied and the suitable
implementations to reduce that impact should be included.
