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dam-l (Fwd) LS: 2 articles on Pak Mun dam occupation
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Date sent: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 17:52:05 -0700
From: Aviva Imhof <aviva@irn.org> (by way of Aviva Imhof <aviva@irn.org>)
Subject: LS: 2 articles on Pak Mun dam occupation
To: irn-mekong@igc.org
Publication: The Nation
Section: Editorial & Opinion
CHANGNOI: Not a picnic for Pak Mool
refugees
WITH the arrival of the World Commission on Dams, the Chuan government may not be able to ignore the Assembly of the Poor this time.
last week, some 3,000 members of the Assembly of the Poor seized land around the Pak Mool dam in Ubon Ratchathani. In 1995, 1996 and 1997, the
Assembly of the Poor staged protests during the dry season in the heart of Bangkok.
On the last of these, up to 20,000 camped outside Government House for 99 days, while the leaders conducted an epic negotiation with the government.
Although only a handful of the assembly's 121 demands were settled, the event was a landmark. The government agreed to pay compensation of Bt4.6
billion to over 7,000 families for the loss of their land and livelihood. Most had been evicted to make way for dams. But the Chuan government has since
reversed most of the decisions and withheld most of the money. It passed a cabinet resolution stating simply that no compensation can be paid for dams that
have already been built.
But what use is a protest on a rocky piece of wasteland 600 km away from Bangkok? The government will try to ignore it. The provincial authorities will be
commissioned to look after it. The press will not take much interest.
''Go to Bangkok again?'' says Wanida Tantiwitthayaphithak, adviser to the assembly. ''The villagers just can't face it. It's too expensive for a start. It's a
long way to travel. They really have no money.''
Besides, the Bangkok strategy may not be so effective. This government has proven very thick-skinned. Protesters from Rasi Salai spent months camped
outside Government House with no result. Moreover, public opinion may not be so favourable. Bangkok is absorbed in its own crisis, and not disposed to
be sympathetic to others.
''Here at least they can find some fish,'' continues Wanida, ''maybe plant some vegetables on the river bank, possibly find some casual work. And they can
rotate back to their homes every now and then.''
But still, what's the point if the protest here can be ignored?
The answer lies in the backdrop to the protest camp. The Pak Mool dam. This project completed in 1994 has proved to be a social and environmental
disaster. It is a monument to bad development thinking and bad government. It has enough moral potential to magnify the importance of this remote protest.
Building the dam destroyed a stretch of rapids which contained one of the best fisheries in the country. ''It was so beautiful,'' says one of the leaders of
the Pak Mool fishing community now taking part in the protest. ''There were several sets of rapids, dropping down level by level.''
Swimming these rapids gave fish a special texture, taste and value. Fish from here commanded a better price than elsewhere. The fishing community
flourished. Restaurants in the area were nationally famous. Now the dam has disrupted migration patterns. The beautiful rapids have been dynamited into
an industrial-ugly channel. The fish have disappeared from a stretch of 30-50 km of the Mool river. Some members of the camp are grilling the catch-of-
the-day -- a couple of 2-inch tiddlers. If you order fish in a nearby restaurant and enquire about its origin, the answer is likely to be: Laos.
The World Bank's environmental impact assessment of the dam in 1993 announced confidently that ''if Pak Mun Dam does cause any changes in the fish
community, the Department of Fisheries and Egat have several proven mitigation measures available to respond to any changes.'' This was, quite simply, a
lie. The fish ladder incorporated into the dam has proved quite useless. Few fish can locate it. Those that do beat their heads on the steps. This protest
has perhaps given the ladder some usefulness for the first time: protesters are using it to hang out their washing.
''When they first told us about the dam,'' says the fishing community leader, ''they promised us we would have more fish, more money, better roads and
houses, everything would be better. Some of us did not believe them. But they kept making these promises. So of course we split. Then they promised that if
the fish really did disappear, they would give us 15 rai of land each.''
The government has broken that promise too. It cannot find enough land.
These protests happened during the first Chuan government (1992-5). Then too the protesters occupied the dam site. The Democrat minister, Suthas
Ngernmuen, came up to negotiate. ''He assured the villagers there would be a peaceful and reasonable solution,'' says Wanida. ''The day after he left,
Chuan sent in the Border Patrol Police to beat the villagers and break up the protest. Chuan knows all about the Pak Mool issue.''
A set of rapids, a unique fishery and a fishing community is a relatively high price to pay. But still, any price can be justified if the result is much more
valuable. But the Pak Mool dam is a relatively small hydro-electricity project. Its output would barely power one Bangkok shopping mall. In fact, it has
been running at only around 20 per cent of this full capacity. Raising the output from the similarly under-utilised (and much larger) Sirinthorn dam a few
kilometres away would more than compensate for Pak Mool. The rapids, fishery and community have been sacrificed for electricity capacity which is not
needed or can be replicated elsewhere.
The dam is a monument to the careless belief in technology, and to the Democrat-led government's hatred of protesters. ''Chuan always leaves things to
officials, whose thinking is out of date,'' says Wanida, ''and leaves things to laws, which are out of date.''
The Pak Mool dam was obviously a mistake. Egat, which owns the project, may resist this conclusion. So too will the Democrat leaders who pushed the
project through. Others wonder whether it is a mistake that could be reversed. Take the opportunity of this crisis and the decline in power demand. Open
up the dam gates, throw some rocks back to rebuild the rapids, and see if the fish come back. That would really be development.
Recently the World Bank, which helped finance the project, has joined in the establishment of a World Commission on Dams to investigate projects where
the real cost-benefit has differed widely from the plan. Pak Mool has been selected among the dozen or so dams around the world which will be reviewed.
The process begins next month.
The protest around Pak Mool has the look and feel of a refugee camp. The core of the camp is the fishing community and others disrupted by Pak Mool. But
other groups under the Assembly of the Poor have joined the camp to show solidarity and to continue their own opposition to other projects, past and
planned. These are Thailand's own internal refugees, displaced by the sort of folly to which the Pak Mool dam serves as a fitting monument. The
government will try to ignore them.
The attitude of the provincial governor is revealing. Last Thursday he said about the protest: ''It's the dry season. The villagers have nothing to do for a
couple of months. So they come here for a picnic because it's a nice place.'' But the arrival of the World Commission on Dams at this refugee picnic could
shift this attitude a bit.
The Nation
Date: 3/25/99
Publication: The Nation
Section: Politics
Pak Mool protesters seek relief
MORE than 3,000 villagers, who have been affected by the Pak Mool Dam project in Ubon Ratchathani, have
gathered at the dam site demanding compensation for a permanent loss of their occupation -- freshwater fishing.
Thongchareon Sihatham, leader of the villagers who are under the umbrella of the Assembly of the Poor, said
yesterday he wanted the government to pay them because after the dam became operational in 1994, they have not
been able to catch any fish from the Mool River.
He said the Chavalit government approved Bt1.8 billion in compensation for the villagers, but the Chuan government
had revoked the decision. He said the Chuan government has to respect the previous Cabinet's resolution.
Amnuay Viravan, then finance minister, agreed to pay the Bt1.8 billion to more than 3,800 families who lost their
careers because the government could not provide 15 rai of land to each villager as promised by the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), the dam owner. The money was to be paid via the agriculture cooperatives.
However, the Chavalit government collapsed before the money could be transferred. And when the Chuan
government took charge, it claimed that the former Cabinet's approval was illegal and revoked the decision.
''We, the poor, have given more than enough time to the government and now it's time to call for justice. Besides
ignoring the poor, the Chuan government has also embezzled our money to serve the rich,'' he claimed.
Wattana Nakpradit, an adviser to the assembly, said the government should apportion some money from its many
loan projects to compensate the villagers.
''They have the right to be paid, since they sacrificed themselves in the national interest,'' she said.
The protest, which started on Tuesday, will continue till the government agrees to the demand, Thongchareon said.
The villagers have received moral support from other ''dam-hit'' villagers and friends. About 1,000 villagers affected
by the Sirindhorn Dam, Chaiyaphum's Lamkanchu Dam and the Pongkhunpetch Dam Construction Project
yesterday moved in to join in the protest.
Moreover, nine Japanese academics from the Tokyo Technology College also visited the protesting villages.
Wattana said the academics, some of whom were observers during the setting up of the assembly three years ago,
are now on their ''visit Thailand'' schedule.
The Pak Mool Dam was constructed during 1991-1993, when the Egat and the Royal Fishery Department promised
that after the dam was completed the Mool River will be as fertile as in the past and the villagers could continue with
their freshwater fishing.
Meanwhile in Si Sa Ket, about 300 villagers belonging to the Assembly of Northeastern Small Scale Farmers
(ANSCF) rallied at the City Hall. They were protesting against the alleged illegal activities by officials of the Royal
Irrigation Department (RID) and the Royal Forestry Department (RFD) in the province.
Ronnachit Thummong, leader of the protesters, said RID officials had refused his request to see details of
compensation for villagers who had been affected by the projects of the RID. He alleged corruption in the
compensation process.
He threatened that he and his colleagues will move to join villagers in Nakhon Ratchasima to demand that the
government solve the problems of the ANSCF.
Police chief Gen Pracha Promnok said police will facilitate the protesters if they want to move to Bangkok. But they
must not block any roads or disturb other people.
''But, if possible, they should send only their representatives to talk with the government,'' he said.
BY PENNAPA HONGTHONG
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