Waste material from Chinese spacecraft fell into Rakhine Sea

Waste parts of a spacecraft launched by Beijing fell into the water of Rakhine Sea on Monday.

It’s not the first time that waste material from the Chinese spacecraft has fallen into the sea adjacent to Rakhine State of Myanmar.

According to a Rakhine State government source, the material fell into the sea near  Gwa township, the most southern part of Rakhine which is close to Irrawaddy division.

Those  parts fell into the sea 66 kilometer west of Gwa and 104 kmn south of Man Aung island  at about 12:30 am on 21 August.

A Gwa resident claimed that due to the development many marine animals may face different challenges.

"I want to see it as an invasion of a foreign country over our territory. Rakhine sea is not their property. China government in Beijing and the Burmese government should reveal all relevant information to the Rakhine people,” he added.

Ko Myo Lwin, an environmental activist hailing from Ann township informed that the military council did not notify about it to the locals in advance. Now the people dependent on the aquatic livelihood
will face problems.

"When such materials fall into the sea, it becomes dangerous for the fishermen. There may be  ships and boats sailing over the location. Moreover, it’s still difficult to imagine how the incident would
effect on  aquatic animals. We need to carefully research with the help of experts,”  he asserted.

Often the waste material contains toxic chemicals and radioactive elements which may cause damages to coral reefs in the sea. Thus it becomes a concern for the whole ecosystem. Rakhine State military council has however claimed that there was no harmful material dropped from the Chinese spacecraft.

Earlier, waste materials from the Chinese spacecrafts fell into Rakhine sea on 26  February, 2 March, 7 and 13 April last year. Similarly on  2021, two days (6 and 12  December) recorded the fall of
waste parts from a Chinese spacecraft into Rakhine sea.