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dam-l LS: Dam protesters at risk from drowning

RASI SALAI DAM


Protesters at risk from drowning
Anchalee Kongrut
Bangkok Post 10th Sept 1999

The Department of Energy Development and Promotion has warned local 
protesters who have settled and built shacks in the middle reservoir of Rasi 
Salai Dam that they are at risk from drowning as the department is to start 
operating flood gates soon.

Director-general Itthi Bijayendrayodhin told reporters yesterday that the 
department would close the flood gates of Rasi Salai Dam, built across the 
Moon river in Si Sa Ket, by the end of the rainy season for water 
conservation for agriculture in the dry season.

This operation poses a risk to 500 villagers, protesting under the umbrella 
of the Forum of the Poor, who currently occupy the reservoir land.

The group previously received compensation over displacement by the dam but 
are continuing their protest to help relatives in the Moon Basin 
Forum-another group of 600 villagers settled nearby, who are seeking 
compensation.

"We will close the flood gates as planned. Any damage to protesters' 
properties will be dealt with through legal procedures," said Mr Itthi.

Prasittiporn Kan-onsri, an adviser to the Forum of the Poor, said villagers 
would not be moved by the threat.

"Whatever happens we will not move out from the reservoir. We will survive 
somehow," he said.

The department has maintained that the forest and land along the river banks 
is public property.

A study by a Khon Kaen University lecturer revealed villagers have been 
using the wetland forest along the Moon river for generations because the 
land is rich with sediment from seasonal flooding.

An additional 315 million baht was earmarked to compensate villagers whose 
homes and land were affected by the dam.
 

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Chainarong Sretthachau
Southeast Asia Rivers Network(SEARIN)
25/5 Moo 2
Soi Sukhapibarn 27
ChangKhien-Jed Yod Rd.
Chang Phuak
Muang, Chiang Mai 50300
Thailand
Tel 6653-221157
Fax 6653-283609