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dam-l LS: Let the river run free, village leaders say
Let river run free, village leaders say
"Open the gates and the fish will return"
Sanitsuda Ekachai in Ubon Ratchathani, Bangkoko Post, April 21, 2000
People who lost their land and livelihood to the Pak Moon dam will petition
the Electricity Generating Authority next month to halt operations and open
the gates to let the river run free.
Thongjaroen Sihadham, leader of the villagers, said it would become clear
in just a year if fish would return to a free-flowing Moon from the Mekong.
Villagers say the dam, at the confluence of the rivers, obstructs fish
migration and has decimated stocks and diversity in the Moon, which had fed
many provinces in the Northeast.
They say the dam, with a capacity to generate 136 megawatts, produces an
average of 40 and nothing during the rainy season. Nor does it provide the
irrigation benefits that had been promised.
Calls for the demolition of the dam were made at the site yesterday as
reformers gathered to discuss development projects that work against the
interests of ordinary people.
Sulak Sivaraksa, the social critic, strongly supported the call to demolish
the dam given its failure to meet its initial goals in generation and
irrigation.
"The villagers want their livelihood back," he said.
Anand Panyarachun, former prime minister, and Prawase Wasi, reform
activist, called for dialogue between villagers and the authorities.
Mr Anand said the government should put the villagers on an equal footing
to consider if the dam had its goals. And if not, it should admit mistakes.
Villagers should set aside old grudges and enter into negotiations on the
understanding that neither side will emerge fully satisfied.
They agreed, however, that the misery of the dam victims testified to the
country's development failure. Pak Moon villagers were among countless
rural people made poor by an unequal power structure and mainstream
development policies which destroy nature and rural communities to support
industrial growth and urban affluence.
Discussing the solutions for the poor, Prof Saneh Chamarik urged people's
movements to join forces to push for land reform. Rather than follow state
thinking that bases reform on private ownership and chemical farming, he
said the goal should be to revive communal ownership, bonding and the ecology.
By doing so, villagers can preserve the country's biodiversity and local
knowledge that are essential to survival at the community and national
levels, he said.
Mr Anand and Prof Prawase urged the governments to switch development
strategies from creating wealth to tackling poverty directly. The
trickle-down theory had never worked and wealth ended up in the hands of
the few. Prof Prawase also urged the media to be more sympathetic to the poor.
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