Legal proposals for improving EIA procedures of Myanmar for gemstone mines: a case study of Hpakhant Jade Mine

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a mechanism that is used to identify, evaluate, predict and protect the environment, ecology, biodiversity, human well-beings, socio-economic, cultures, etc., ensuring all the projects that are going to proceed or construct are implemented responsibly, achieving the sustainable development, minimizing and avoiding the adverse impacts by taking the preventive and precautionary measures in implementation of all proposed projects. To protect the above discussed matters, Myanmar has also enacted EIA law called Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures (EIAP) 2015 of Myanmar. However, it has a significant legal loophole in applying on the gemstone mines that are in operating in the same region which lead to the generation of other legal issues. Due to this legal loophole, the EIA under EIAP 2015 could not effectively identify, evaluate, predict the potential adverse impacts and protect the environment, socio-economic, people, cultures, and ecology, etc., of gemstone mines that are in the same region. By looking into Hpakhant Jade Mine from two perspectives, the perspective from the ground condition in Hpakhant, and the legal perspective, it can be concluded that the current EIAP 2015 has a problem. From practical perspective in Hpakhant Jade Mine, 32,000 acres of mines are operated next to the villages; landslides of jade mines are frequent causing hundreds to deaths; damaging houses and some houses are posed to risks of damage; the heavy vehicles transporting wastes of mines by utilizing the local roads passing through villages causing ground crack damaging houses and causing air pollution; and the undisciplined discharges of wasted slid into a river which is a major water source causing water pollution. Besides, there are other social problems arisen directly or indirectly from jade mines, the illegal prostitution, the widespread of drugs and the increasing rate of drug users, and the child labors. By looking from the legal perspective, the current Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures (EIAP) 2015 allows the jade mines to conduct Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) which merely covers in the small scope and it could identify, predict the potential adverse impacts and protect the social and environmental matters. Thus, in order to effectively mitigate and minimize the adverse impacts and protect the social and environmental matters in the sector of jade mine operations, the EIAP of Myanmar should be revised to explicitly authorize to conduct EIA for the open-pit mines that could cause significant harms to ecosystems, air and water qualities, forest, human well-beings, and socio-economic.