Chiang Rai, Thailand –
A sprawling new mine is gouged into the lush rolling hills of northeast Myanmar, where civil war has weakened the government’s already feeble writ, and pollution levels are rising downstream in Thailand.
The complex is one of around a dozen extraction operations that have sprung up in Shan state since around 2022, in territory controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA), one of conflict-wracked Myanmar’s largest and best-equipped ethnic armed groups.
A few kilometers away across the border, locals and officials in Thailand believe toxic waste is washing downstream from the mines into the Kok River, which flows through the kingdom’s far north on its way to join the mighty Mekong.
