Environmental Impact Assessments, or EIAs can be a crucial tool for communities who face harmful development projects. ERI uses this video in grassroots trainings to show how communities can use the public consultations during an EIA process to make their voices heard. The video focuses on the story of the Heinda tin mine in Myanmar. Since 2008, pollution from the Heinda mine has contaminated water supplies in nearby villages, with villagers reporting health problems and damage to their farmlands. The company operating the Heinda mine, Myanmar Pongpipat Company Ltd (MPC), was ordered to conduct an EIA. But as villagers in the affected communities saw that EIA laws were not being followed, they refused to participate in public consultations for the company, preventing the EIA from moving forward. Communities across the Mekong and elsewhere can look to the Heinda case to see one method of influencing the course of development projects in their area.

ERI uses this video in grassroots trainings to show how communities can use the public consultations during an EIA process to make their voices heard.