Civil society groups conducted a two-day protest in Mandalay last week against large-scale hydropower projects planned on the country’s rivers. According to an article in Frontier, on the first day of the conference participants celebrated the country’s rivers. The participants also shared their experiences about hydropower developments in Myanmar. The discussion was around the controversial Myitsone Dam in Kachin State, which China is lobbying to have re-started after it was postponed in 2012. On the second day, hundreds of participants wearing “No Dam” headbands sailed a ferry along the Ayeyarwady River to mark the International Day of Action for Rivers. Participants said the event was the first time civil society groups across the country have come together to protest against hydropower. Last week, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi made rare public comments about Myitsone. She was calling on people to consider it from “a wider perspective”. Protesters were also demonstrating against the government’s plans to build more than 50 large hydropower dams on the country’s rivers. “These dams directly threaten and exploit the fragile ecology of the rivers and the ethnic communities who rely on them for their survival and for the survival of their cultural heritage,” the groups said in a statement.