We d like to tell lawmakers what we face on the ground. But they no longer come to us, said Mung Ra.

This story is not unique. About 3,000 people from some 20 other villages face hardships similar to those of Mung Ra and Brang Mai.

And we use this money for our household expenses, said Mung Ra. In 2011, locals were ordered to move as farmlands and bamboo trees were cleared for the dam project.

Mung Ra, Lu Ra, and La Awng were among those who voted for the NLD, believing that it would not ignore their wishes. But now they are not so sure.

It has now been five years since the Myitsone Dam project in Northern Myanmar was suspended, but a local ethnic Kachin man, Mung Ra, is still not satisfied. He wishes that the project had been entirely terminated.

But the compensation we receive is only 5,000 kyats for the entire cluster of bamboo plants. On my bamboo plantation, the smallest cluster has at least 50 bamboo plants, and the largest cluster has about 300 plants, Mung Ra said.

Bamboo trees are not useful to urban residents, but to people like Mung Ra who live alongside the Myitsone confluence of the Mali and N mai rivers, which forms the Irrawaddy River 26 miles north of the Kachin State capital Myitkyina bamboo is a crucial source of income.

Mung Ra used to live in Dawn Ban, one of over 20 villages that were relocated to make space for the Myitsone Dam. He and his fellow villagers had to leave Dawn Ban behind in 2011 because the village lies in an area designated for a sluice gate.