Just for something a bit different, these two shots give some idea about how far the Irrawaddy River falls during its slow, winter-time meander past Myitkyina.
I imagine that by March or April (before the major rains come) it will have fallen much further still. At the height of the rainy season it is a fast-flowing torrent. And, of course, from time to time the river spills over into parts of Myitkyina town itself.
5 responses so far ↓
1 aiontay // Feb 8, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Do they still dig for gold in the riverbed at Myitkyina? I heard that in the old days the locals looked for the location of whirlpools in the river during the rainy season, and during the dry season dug for gold there since the gold dust in the river debris settled in those whirlpool areas. I guess these days they’re just using dredging equipment from China.
2 Nicholas Farrelly // Feb 8, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Yes, Aiontay, I have seen people hunting for gold with shovels or pans – and have also seen dredging equipment on certain sections of the river. But I have never had the impression that the Irrawaddy was the easiest pickings these days. As you know, much of the major gold extraction goes on elsewhere.
Lots of the people who are visible out in the distance in these two pictures are either fishing, bathing or washing clothes. Some may have been hunting for gold, but I didn’t get a chance to explore further on this occasion.
Best wishes to all.
3 aiontay // Feb 9, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Maybe they’re digging for gold after a night at the “Wheel of Fortune”.
4 Hla Oo // Jul 21, 2008 at 7:09 am
The seasonal differences of water levels in Irrawaddy is much more pronounce in Middle Burma in places like Minbu and Myingyan than in Myitkyina. I used to work as a mechanical engineer for Burma Irrigation Department and was involved in the design, building, and commission of first ever River Water Pumping Project at Kanni near Minbu on the west bank of Irrawaddy in 1980s.
We had to mount the large German pumps on the barge floating on the river and the huge reservoir was on the deep bank, and the rubber flexible pipes between the centrifugal pumps and almost vertical, permanent 24″ CI pipes to the reservoir were at least 100 foot in length to accommodate the seasonal slacks, if I still remember correctly.
5 Moe Aung // Jul 21, 2008 at 8:05 am
Seasonal islands appear in the Irrawaddy during winter ‘when the water is small’ leaving narrow channels for rivercraft. These islands are a frequent cause for dispute among neighbouring villages over which one has the right to grow crops on them and it could come to blows.
Here’s some info on gold mining in Kachin State. It’s only done along its parent streams.
http://burmalibrary.org/docs/gold%20pdf1.pdf
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