Current Status

Dominant Grass Burning for Crop Rotation

The upper reaches of the Ayeyawady River are dominated by high mountains and valleys with few flat lands, so local residents have to burn grasses to get arable land on the slopes. The grass burning for crop rotation directly leads to destruction of vegetation in large area as well as water and soil loss. 


Frequent Raging Floods

There are no storage regulation and flood control measures for the river basin at present except passive defense in case of flood. The reaches upstream Myitkyina are characterized by flood of a large volume and a high water head in rainy seasons. The flood often occurs in this season and surges downstream with rubbles and sediments, threatening the safety of people’s lives and property and badly impacting vegetation, animal habitats, fish living environment, agricultural production and so on along the banks of the Ayeyawady River.


Frequent Geological Disaster

There are no measures against geological disasters in the Ayeyawady River basin at present. Collapse of banks caused by irregular water flow, debris flow disasters caused by sudden rainstorms and so on happen from time to time, resulting in serious water loss and soil erosion day by day. After occurrence of ecological disasters, catastrophic damage is caused to vegetation and animal habitats and the content of sediment in downstream river channel rises accordingly. As a consequence, water quality has degraded.