Why We Work On The Border

Over the past few years Aqueous Solutions has established relationships with communities of displaced persons and refugees located along the Thailand-Burma border.

Burma, or Myanmar, is a former British colony made independent at the end of WWII. At that time, many of the ethnic tribes that are indigenous to different regions of the country were promised autonomy but the central military government refused, and so there has been fighting around the country continuously for over 60 years.

It is now estimated that over 500,000 people are displaced from their home villages and territories within Burma, and many thousands cross the border into Thailand every year in order to escape the ongoing violence and forced labor perpetrated by the Burmese military government, and to seek basic health care and educational services. The Burmese government spends less than 3% of national expenditures on health, while the military, with a standing army of over 400,000 troops, consumes 40%. Nearly 10% of Burmese children will die from preventable diseases before their 10th birthday. Some 90% of the population lives on 65 cents a day, and around 30% have incomes below the threshold necessary to provide for basic food and other needs.

The plot below shows a time series of the United Nation Development Program’s Human Development Indicator (HDI). The HDI is a composite index combining statistics of life expectancy, level of education, and standard of living. (For reference, an HDI of 0.8 or greater is considered to be a “high level of human development.”) The plot makes clear that the discrepancies in development (as indexed by the HDI) between Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand are roughly equal in magnitude to the difference between Thailand and the US.

The table below presents some statistics comparing development and health indicators in Thailand, Burma and the US.

Thus there are numerous refugee and displaced persons’ encampments along the border – some with tens-of-thousands of residents. The figure below shows the locations and approximate populations of some of the major refugee encampments. Water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions in the camps and within the settlements of migrant and displaced persons in general are typically very poor.

Along with the violence and conflict, in the border areas, smuggling and illegal commerce, including sex trafficking, are prevalent. Due to these forms of insecurity and instability, there is a large population of orphaned and neglected children, as well as widows and single mothers often in desperate circumstances.

The thousands of people fleeing violence and poor living conditions in Burma typically do not receive official recognition in Thailand. Without proper documentation they cannot travel or work legally in Thailand, and children cannot attend Thai government schools.

The graphs below summarize some development and public health statistics for Hill Tribe and ethnic Burmese households in Tak Province, Thailand. It’s clear that Hill Tribe and ethnic Burmese peoples living in Thailand often do not experience the same level of health and well-being and livelihood security compared with local Thai nationals.

Discrepancies in health and development indicators between Thai, Hill Tribe and Burmese households in Tak Province, Thailand (Tak Prov.: 18.1% Hill Tribe households, 4.5% Burmese households). (Source: UNICEF)

In light of the difficult and insecure conditions faced by many displaced Hill Tribe and ethnic Burmese peoples throughout the border regions, Aqueous Solutions has developed relationships with some homes and schools in the region that provide basic educational and health services to undocumented and migrant children, widows and single mothers, and families. We are working with these communities and local NGOs to increase communities’ access to water resources, and to improve health, livelihood security, self-reliance, environmental sustainability, and economic development through implementation of appropriate technologies in water treatment and ecological sanitation, and though hygiene promotion.