At his wooden home on the rocky Salween riverbank, Watsan Namchaitosaporn recalls being told his village will be flooded when the controversial Hat Gyi dam is completed.
Hydropower developers told the deputy headman of Ban Mae Sam Leap in Thailand's Mae Hong Son province _ upriver from the dam site in Myanmar's Karen state _ that the flooding will be particularly bad in the rainy season. Residents will have to move.
As the conversation continues at Mr Watsan's home, rain can be seen falling on green mountains outside the window. As the rainy season begins, plants are transforming into shades of vibrant green along the riverbank. The rain can be heard, and claps of thunder sometimes interrupt our conversation.
''The Thai government will build the dam no matter what. We can't oppose them. We can do nothing. Even if they don't build it, the Myanmar government will go ahead with the project with the help of China. So, they
[Thailand] don't want to lose this chance,'' Mr Watsan says.
After work was suspended for several years on the Hat Gyi hydropower project _ one of six planned dams on the Salween river _ activity has now resumed, and progress is visible as engineers visit the site and measure water levels, and developers conduct assessments in villages along the river.
Work on the dam restarted after the Myanmar government reached ceasefire agreements last year with ethnic Karen and Karenni rebels, who had been fighting the government for autonomy for more than 60 years.
Mr Watsan says a delegation, comprising researchers and developers from Chulalongkorn University and representatives of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), visited his village on May 22.
Most inhabitants of Mae Sam Leap village are ethnic Karen hill tribe who rely mostly on local border trade to earn their living. Like Mae Sam Leap, many other villages in both Myanmar and Thailand will be flooded, and the inhabitants relocated, when the six Salween dams are completed.
Originating in Tibet and flowing into the Andaman Sea, the Salween river passes through eastern Myanmar, snaking its way through Karen and Karenni states. In Karen state, the river serves as the border with Thailand.
''We told them [the delegation] that the authorities have to find a new relocation site for us and provide us with proper compensation,'' Mr Watsan says.
The delegation also visited several other villages which will be flooded by the dam project, where they consulted residents about the impacts of the Hat Gyi dam and sought opinions on the US$1 billion (31.2 billion baht) hydroelectric project, which will have a capacity of 1,200 megawatts.
Egat says six villages will need to be relocated and 13 in total will be affected in some way by the dam project.
Independent research by Karen Rivers Watch tells a more dramatic story. It says 21 villages will be relocated and that 41 communities, or 30,000 people, will be directly affected by the building of the dam.
The Hat Gyi dam is being built by Egat, a Thai government body, which signed a deal for the project with Myanmar's Ministry of Electric Power in 2006. China's Sinohydro Corporation is also a partner.
Two dams are also set to be built in Shan state _ the Tasang dam and Upper Thanlwin dam _ while the Ywa Thit dam is being planned for Karenni state and Wei Gyi, Dagwin and Hat Gyi dams will be built in Karen state.
Myanmar's Deputy Minister of Electric Power Myint Zaw told the Lower House on Feb 27 that the six dams would be built using foreign investment, according to state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Steve Thompson is an environmental educator and researcher with the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (Kesan), an environmental organisation that advocates against large-scale dams and hydropower projects in Myanmar. He says some negative impacts are already being seen even in the early stages of the Hat Gyi dam project. These include the influx of military personnel who are displacing entire communities in a bid to ''secure'' the area.
The impacts of a dam on river flows can also wipe out many or most riverine fish species, with serious socio-economic consequences for local villagers, the researcher said.
The Hat Gyi dam has long been opposed by the main ethnic Karen rebel group, the Karen National Union (KNU), especially by its Brigade 5 which holds the territory in which the dam is being built.
It was attacks launched by KNU Brigade 5 that led to construction at the dam site being stalled for so long. In 2007, one Thai worker from Egat was killed and several others were wounded when a group of unknown militants launched a grenade attack on a worker camp at the dam construction site.
However, work at the Hat Gyi site has been scaled up since April, in the wake of a ceasefire agreement between the government and the KNU signed in January last year.
Observers and critics point out that activities at the Hay Gyi dam site have resumed largely unnoticed, while the Myanmar government was praised internationally for its decision to suspend construction of the Chinese-backed Myitsone dam on the Irrawaddy River in 2011.
In late April this year, a joint force of the Myanmar government and a government-affiliated militia, called the Karen Border Guard Force (KBGF), launched attacks against a breakaway Karen rebel group, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), near the Hat Gyi dam site in order to secure the area. The fighting erupted after the DKBA refused to follow an order by government forces to abandon one of its bases near the dam site, according to DKBA Major Wai Htoo.
DKBA sources say the fighting has claimed more than 40 lives as the government and KBGF forces moved to expel them from their long-established headquarters and temple facilities near the dam site.
''Local communities are strongly opposed to the dam project,'' the environmentalist Mr Thompson said.
Some Karen observers, however, say the plan to build the Hat Gyi dam will not go smoothly for the government as the KNU Brigade 5 and the DKBA disagree with the plan. Even thought some top KNU leaders have allowed Myanmar and Thai authorities to go ahead with the project, KNU Brigade 5 and the DKBA are likely to interrupt construction.
During a visit to their headquarters, Brigade 5 military trainer Maj Eh Doh Htoo says he will not let work on the dam be completed. With the aim to protect civilians who will be affected by the dam, Maj Eh Doh Htoo said his troops will try to interrupt the work using any and all means possible.
Phu Law La, a thin 65-year-old man who lives in Ban Tang Ta Fang, another village on the Salween that will be flooded by the planned Dagwin dam, said NGO workers came to visit his village recently and asked local inhabitants about their opinions on the dam.
''We are mountain-dwelling people. We farm and plant crops for our living and we are familiar with it. So we love to live this way. People from cities might not know how important it is to us,'' Phu Law La says.
''Let me put in this way: a city kid loves her pet dog. She doesn't like anybody to hurt her pet. For us, the pet may not be important, but it is very important for her as she loves it.
''Our home, villages and farms are our lives. We love our lives. We don't want our lives to be taken away by others.''
According to the Burma Rivers Network, the cost of construction for the Dagwin Dam is estimated at US$900 million. It will be built by Egat and Japan's Electric Power Development Company.
Khu Mi Reh, a spokesman for the Karenni Civil Societies Network, a community-based organisation that monitors the peace process between the government and Karenni National Progressive Party rebel group, says his organisation has faced obstacles in accessing the site of Ywa Thit dam for field studies, despite there being agreements between the two parities to allow independent assessments.
''Although they [the government] agreed to transparency, the army didn't allow us to access the area where the dam will be built. After the ceasefire agreement was reached, we tried to travel to the dam site for observation, but we were not allowed to do so,'' Khu Mi Reh says.
He says many locals from nearby villages have been displaced by soldiers who are occupying the villages to secure the dam site.
The state-owned Datang Corporation of China singed an memorandum of understanding with the former Myanmar military regime in January, 2010, to build three dams in Karenni State, including the 600MW Ywa Thit dam which will be built on the Salween river. The two others will be built on the Pawn and Thabet rivers.
''We worry about the social and environmental impacts, and natural disasters such as earthquakes,'' Khu Mi Reh says.
Human rights advocacy groups have called for transparency and accountability in the business deals that came alongside peace accords with rebel groups in Myanmar. More then 150 representatives from 40 Karen community organisations in Myanmar and overseas held a seminar from May 27 to 31, also demanding transparency and accountability in economic development projects that have been signed amid on-going peace talks between the government and the KNU.
They called on the KNU to talk to the public whenever they want to sign major business deals, such as for power plants and dams which might damage the livelihoods of locals.
Susanna Hla Hla Soe, director of the Yangon-based Karen Women's Action Group, says some business projects, such as a dam on Thaut Yin Ka River in Taungoo district, Pegu division, which flooded villages and displaced civilians, were damaging to local communities. ''We only find out about the projects after they are already having a negative impact on civilians. We don't want such incidents to happen in the future,'' she said.
PLANNING A DEFENCE: Watsan Namchaitosaporn and a friend study a map of the Salween river where the dam will affect local villages.
PHOTOS: SAW YAN NAING