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dam-l LS: Affected villagers occupy Rasi Salai dam

Affected villagers occupy the Rasi Salai dam.

On April 20th, more than 1000 villagers from Assembly of Mun River Basin
and Assembly of the Poor, who have been affected by Rasi Salai dam,
occupied the dam site.

The demonstration started due to the Government's failure to resolve the
problems caused by the dam, and 5 villagers were arrested by police and are
currently facing court proceedings.

The villagers are demanding that the Government re-examine the impacts of
the project, particularly to determine the exact number of people affected
by the dam and to pay for compensation as well as fix the environmental
problems. 

"We demand the Government determine how many people are affected by the dam
through a participatory process, not a bureaucratic process, and pay
compensation for the affected villagers. In the near future, more and more
people will join this demonstration" said Mr. Boonmee Sopang, 36 years, the
leader of Assembly of the Mun River Basin.

He said "even the people here do not have enough food, and have to bear
rain during the nights and high temperatures in day time, but we will not
stop the demonstration until we have won".

April 20, 1999

Basic information about Rasi Salai dam 

By:
· South-East Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN Thailand) 
· The Committee to Save Tam Mun (The Committee to Save the Fresh Water
Swamp Forest in the Mun River)
· Assembly of the Poor
· Wildlife Fund Thailand

April, 20,1999

Rasi Salai Dam is located on the Mun River. Construction commenced in 1992
by Department of Power Development and Promotion (DPDP), Ministry of
Sciences, Technology, and Environment. This dam is a part of Kong-Chi-Mun
Water Diversion Project, the largest water diversion project in
Northeastern Thailand. Under this project, DPDP has plans to build 13 dams
on the Chi and Mun rivers within 42 years, at a total cost of $US5.7
billion. This water diversion project was promoted by the DPDP and
politicians during the late 1980s. They claimed the project will solve the
water shortages in Northeast Thailand by divert water from Mekong River to
the Chi and Mun Rivers. 

The process of construction was very deceitful. DPDP began construction
secretively, did not release any information to the public, and stated they
would only build a small rubber weir, not a concrete dam. At Rasi Salai,
the government approved it as a rubber weir 4.5 meters high, and stated
that the water level would not rise above the river bank. In fact, the DPDP
built a 9 meter high concrete dam. This deception took place in every dam
in Kong-Chi-Mun Project.

Rasi Salai dam is a large-scale dam because more than 100 square kilometers
were inundated (80 sq. km. of farmland and fresh water swamp forest). Under
the Environmental Act, every dam project which has a reservoir of 15 square
kilometers or more must have an EIA. However, the DPDP failed to conduct an
EIA at Rasi Salai. Therefore, Rasi Salai dam is an illegal dam and DPDP
have broken the law, even though DPDP is under the Ministry of Sciences
Technology and Environment, who are responsible for the Environmental Act.  

This poor process has lead to many problems as following:

1.Economic Impacts: 

1.1 A construction cost overrun of more 622 per cent. The original cost was
estimated to be 140 million Baht, but the real construction cost was 871
million Baht.

1.2 The dam was promised to irrigate 55.072 sq. km. If we calculate by the
existing modern irrigation system in the North-East, which has only 37%
efficiency, this dam will provide irrigation to only 20.37 sq. km. while it
flooded about 80 sq. km of fertile land. Even though the dam was completed
in 1994, the irrigation system is not operational.

2.Environmental Impacts: 

2.1 The dam destroyed the fresh water swamp forest along the banks of the
Mun River. This ecosystem is very important. In ecological terms, it is a
habitat for fish, provides food for fish, and an area for fish breeding.
The fresh water swamp forest along the banks of the Mun River is also
useful for flood control, treating toxic water, and has very high
biodiversity value. In social terms, it provided food, herbal medicine, as
well as farmland for villagers. 

2.2.The dam blocks the migration of fish in the middle reaches of the Mun
River. Fish is very important for local villagers. 

2.3 The reservoir has been plagued by salination problems, because it is on
top of a big salt dome. Two years after the dam was completed, the
Department of Land Development found high salinity content in the reservoir
because the water in the reservoir dissolves the salt underground and there
is no natural drainage of water. Officials from the Department of Interior
confirmed this problem. 

3. Social Impacts:

More than 3000 families lost their farmland by the reservoir. Although they
were against large dams, DPDP deceived them by stating that they would
built a rubber weir, so the villagers did not oppose the project. After
villagers discovered the facts, they started to demonstrate. However DPDP
did not pay compensation to them because there was no EIA report and no
field surveys, so there is no baseline data about the affected people.
After the demonstration PBB paid for private property only, and gave no
compensation for common lands. 

Moreover, DPP constructed a dyke to reduce the number of affected villagers
(DPDP has plan to construct a 45.8 km long dike). However, the dyke has
created worse impacts. Its does not allow the water to flow into the
reservoir in monsoon season, and so it floods a vast area of farmland. DPP
established some flood-gates with check valves along the dyke, but it has
been ineffective. Moreover, some time the water flows backwards from the
reservoir, because of poor maintenance.

After a long struggle, Gen. Chawalit Yongjaiyut's Government paid
compensation to 1154 villager families out of more than 3000 affected
families.

Gen.Chawalit's Government agreed to correct the problems caused by dyke
construction by installing more mega-pumps for draining water to the
reservoir, and to maintain the flood gates, but DPDP did nothing. 

4.Human Rights Impact:

To construct the dam, the Government and DPP were not concerned about human
rights, and violated the constitution. They did this by supporting other
groups to attack the affected peoples, and by arresting village leaders. On
January 18th of this year, 4 village leaders were arrested by police. They
are Ms. Pha Kongkaew, Mr. Saksit Buapan, Mr. Pijit Silalak, and Mr. Boonmee
Sopang. And on April 18th , Mr. Boon Nanaul was arrested. Now most of them
are facing court proceedings. 

Future actions

The villagers are thinking and discussing a campaign to remove the dam.
They will start this campaign when they believe time is appropriate.

-----------------

More information contact:

1.Mr.Chainarong Sretthachau 

Coordinator, South-East Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN Thailand)

Tel: 6653-221157 

Fax: 6653-283609

E-mail: ethnet@chmai.loxinfo.co.th

2.Mr.Sanan Chu-sakun

Coordinator, The Committee for Save Tam Mun

Tel: 6644-513562

E-mail: ecf@surin.nepnet.co.th



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Aviva Imhof
South-East Asia Campaigner
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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