Residents along Ye-Moulmein highway suffering during road redevelopment

March 16, 2016

Locals living along the Ye to Moulmein highway have complained that recent efforts to widen and repair the road have left their homes plagued by dirt and dust.

Nai Hla Thein, a local from Wang Rai village, Thanbyuzayat Township, explained, “Every morning, we suffer from the dirt. Our house is full of it and we can’t clean it all up. It is dangerous for our health.”

Another Thanbyuzayat Township resident, Mi Kon Pi, complained, “We can’t just keep cleaning [the dirt] up again and again. The construction team never finish working on the road. They start working on it again and again. The dirt is dangerous for those with health problems. How they construct the road [here] is very different to how they do it in other countries. When other countries build roads they don’t see this kind of dirt.”

The construction firm, Aye Ko Company, is in the process of widening the road by two feet, all the way from Ye to Moulmein.

Due to the long duration of the project, some stretches the company completed have already been covered with large bumps and holes, meaning that the construction team has had to return to these areas to make repairs.

A construction worker working on the project, Nai Naing Oo, explained that these problems are due to outdated construction methods in use throughout the country.

Nai Naing Oo detailed, “The new road will make transportation much easier. But our country does not use advanced technology yet. Even the [parts] that we paved recently have already developed bumps and holes. Even if this doesn’t ruin it, it isn’t smooth. We don’t have advanced road construction technology yet.”