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dam-l LS: Pak Mun Villagers Occupy Dam
INTERNATIONAL RIVERS NETWORK
PRESS RELEASE
Friday March 26, 1999
Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigner
(510) 848-1155
Pak Mun Villagers Occupy Dam,
Demand Compensation from World Bank
More than 5,000 disgruntled villagers occupied the Pak Mun Dam site in
Thailand on March 23 to demand compensation from the Thai government and
the World Bank. The villagers have set up a settlement near the dam and
intend to stay indefinitely, until their demands are met.
Eight groups of villagers affected by various development projects -
including six dams - in the Northeast of Thailand have united at Pak Mun to
demand reparations from the Thai government. In a statement released on
March 23, the villagers said:
"We, the people who have been affected by development projects, have chosen
to seize Pak Mun dam because this dam is the symbol of development, which
has caused us serious social and environmental problems. We will fight
until we have justice, and the dam builders resolve our problems."
The Pak Mun villagers are demanding compensation of 15 rai (2.4 acres) of
land for the 3,080 fishing families who lost fisheries income because of
the project. The cost of this would amount to approximately US$45 million.
If the government and World Bank fail to respond, villagers are demanding
that the dam gates be opened to allow fish to migrate upstream. The
villagers are also demanding funding to correct and prevent the problems
they are now experiencing with intestinal and liver flukes, and the
debilitating disease schistosomiasis.
The 136 MW Pak Mun Dam, which was completed in 1994, was built by the
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand with US$24 million in
financing from the World Bank. From the outset, the project was highly
controversial due to the predicted impacts on the rich and productive
fisheries of the Mun River. Between 1990 and 1997, there was intense
opposition to the dam by thousands of people living in local communities
along the Mun River.
As a direct result of the dam, more than 20,000 people have been affected
by drastic reductions in fish populations upstream of the dam site, and
other changes to their livelihoods. The dam has blocked the migration of
fish, and a $1 million fish ladder, promoted by the World Bank's fisheries
experts as a mitigation measure, has proved useless.
Mr. Thongcharoen Srihadham, chairman of the Villagers Committee for
Recovery of the Mun River, says:
"Before the dam was built, our livelihoods were supported by the resources
provided by the Mun River. We did not need to pay for food, because we
could get everything from the river and the forest. After the dam was
built, everything changed. The dam blocked the fish and destroyed the
rapids. We became poorer and had no food from nature. Our families and
communities were destroyed."
The World Bank has consistently refused to take any responsibility for the
project's problems. A June 1998 World Bank Operations Evaluations
Department (OED) report on Recent Experience with Involuntary Resettlement
goes so far as to claim that Pak Mun was "among the best experiences with
resettlement among Bank-assisted projects." The OED states that
resettlement of families at Pak Mun was "highly satisfactory", that
families received "exceedingly generous compensation", and that "there is
no conclusive evidence of any impact … on the fish population."
In a letter delivered to the World Bank on March 15, 1999, 27 Thai groups
state that the dam "destroyed the Mun River, fisheries, and the way of life
of people at Pak Mun… The World Bank is responsible for the destruction,
cares only about itself and not about people, and that the Pak Mun dam is
development only for the World Bank."
Ms. Aviva Imhof, South-East Asia Campaigner with International Rivers
Network, says
"The World Bank needs to take responsibility for the problems it has
created at Pak Mun. The Bank was repeatedly warned by villagers and NGOs
prior to project construction that fisheries would decline significantly
after the dam was completed, yet it consistently dismissed these concerns.
It is simply unacceptable that a so-called 'development' project has caused
the impoverishment of up to 20,000 families, and that the institution
responsible for this can walk away without paying for its mistakes."
The Pak Mun dam is the focal dam for the World Commission on Dams (WCD)
Mekong basin study, and will be subjected to more intense scrutiny over the
coming months. The WCD final report is due by the end of the year 2000.
For more information, contact:
· Ms. Aviva Imhof, International Rivers Network, Tel: 1 510 848 1155,
aviva@irn.org.
· Mr. Chainarong Sretthachau, South-East Asia Rivers Network (Thailand
Chapter), Tel: 66 53 221157, ethnet@chmai.loxinfo.co.th
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Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigns
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94703 USA
Tel: + 1 510 848 1155 (ext. 312), Fax: + 1 510 848 1008
Email: aviva@irn.org, Web: http://www.irn.org
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