Gold rush in Kachin state puts the country’s largest freshwater inland lake at risk of disappearing. KACHIN, MYANMAR – Illegal gold mining is threatening Myanmar’s largest inland freshwater lake – which ethnic people in Kachin state depend on for their livelihoods – due to the increasing demand for the precious metal as the country’s economy teeters towards collapse. U Aung Ko, a 60-year-old ethnic Shan resident in Ma Mon Kaing village at the southern tip of Indawgyi lake, often uses the lake’s water to cool himself down during the heat of the day. He grew up in the peaceful surroundings of the lake, like the more than 35,000 people living in 13 landlocked villages around it, and has used the lake’s water and resources to survive. Indawgyi lake is a designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Mohnyin Township in the southwest of Kachin State. The people living around it are from the Kachin and Red Shan ethnic groups who mainly farm and graze animals around the lake while fishing in the water – their primary source of protein. But in the past few years, U Aung has noticed that the water in the lake has become muddy and shallower. He believes the lake is gradually drying up. “The depth of water [in the lake near my village] was 16 meters recently. It was nearly 27 meters 10 years ago. This shows the significant volume of sediment accumulated at the bottom of the lake,” he said. Beyond his village are hills with streams where he can hear the noise of heavy machinery working. The land along these streams is being unearthed by gold miners, mostly in small-scale operations, sending sediment and wastewater down to the lake. The miners work relentlessly to extract gold from ore – which mainly ends up in Myanmar’s local gold market, which has boomed since the military coup in February 2021. Gold sales spiked as consumers rushed to withdraw cash to purchase gold due to the rapid depreciation of the Kyat and the Central Bank of Myanmar’s policy to freeze foreign currency held at domestic banks. As of October, the price of gold in the country rose nearly 50% compared with the price in the month of the coup as the demand for gold and hoarding increased. The rising demand for gold in the post-coup era has happened along with the surge of gold mining in Kachin state and around the Indawgyi lake. Many of these mines are operated illegally and without environmental impact mitigation. Illegal gold mining has been widespread in Mohnyin Township, especially in Maing Nawng, Lone Ton, and Ma Mon Kaing villages, which are along the Indawgyi lake. In January, the Brandenburg University of Technology released a study pointing out that extensive artisanal small-scale gold mining, together with population growth and intensified agriculture and fishing, has put environmental pressure on Indawgyi lake. The study focuses on gold mining along tributaries known as Hkaung Tung Hka Chaung at the southern part of the lake. It shows that the expanding gold mining in the area has led to an annual input of 133,000 tons of sediment into the lake, and the mining is associated with the destruction of flood plains and forest areas that result in soil erosion. The complete filling of the lake basin would take between 3,600 and 5,400 years, if the sediment load would stay constant, according to the study. The rampant gold mining threatens the lake’s freshwater ecosystem, which supports local people and provides a habitat for more than 600 species, according to figures from UNESCO. More than 160 bird species have been found in the area, including many globally threatened migratory birds, as well as white-rumped vultures and slender-billed vultures. This ecological value led UNESCO to declare the Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary a Biosphere Reserve in 2017. It covers an area of 73,600 hectares of forest, wetland and open lake, which accounts for 16% of the area of Southeast Asia’s third largest freshwater lake. But as the mining intensified in the post-coup era, many local people and conservation groups are concerned that Indawgyi lake could eventually disappear if authorities turn a blind eye to this man-made disaster. “We estimate that the lake has lost around 260 hectares of its freshwater area in the past few years,” said Ko Zwe Ko Ko, a leader of Inn Lovers Group, a local environmental protection organization based in Kachin state. “Our survey found that nearly 800 hectares of the lake has already been covered up by sediment and mud.” A local environmental group recorded a total of 191 excavators being used for illegal gold mining in the area, a huge increase from the 45 that were there before the coup. The same group also used Google Earth satellite images to estimate the mining area around the lake, which has expanded to about 6,000 acres.