Paper short abstract:

The ‘global’ water crisis is a ‘canary in the coal mine’ of a bigger development calamity. Technical fixes abound, but are inadequate. This paper will examine what ecologically-centred, post development visions in Myanmar might mean for the future of water globally.

Paper long abstract:

From famine-inducing drought in the Horn of Africa to sweeping floods in Australia to the Last Days of the Mighty Mekong (Eyler 2019), the ‘global’ water crisis reflects a deeper development calamity. Such disparate crises bring new meanings to euphemistic ‘cost of living’ discourse. In response, global actors scramble for technical solutions, ranging from heavily polluting, expensive desalination in the Gulf States to water trucking for the millions of people displaced across Somalia. Yet the cohabitation of abundance and scarcity are not inevitabilities of the Anthropocene, nor amenable to technical fixes. Water is instead a ‘canary in the coalmine’ of the intersection between global development and ecological limits.

This paper aims to build upon political ecology and post development literature through exploring visions and practice towards water in Myanmar. In a region where governments and development banks have long espoused the benefits of hydropower, opposition has gone beyond anti-dam to being uniquely propositional. Rivers have become symbols of unity and resistance against uneven development backed by military violence. This paper will examine how the Salween and Myitsone galvanised not only civil society solidarity, but also the potential for re-imagining ‘development’ in Myanmar. The analysis concludes by exploring what Myanmar’s experience might mean for challenging dominant development paradigms that are inextricably linked to and exacerbating the ‘global’ water crisis.