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dam-l LS: Struggle for a basic right to livelihood at pak mun
Struggle for a basic right to a livelihood
Sanitsuda Ekachai, Bangkok Post, 27 April 2000
Patience is running thin at Pak Moon and no one can blame the people there.
Not after 12 years of struggles that led to a common conviction: the Pak
Moon Dam must go.
Come mid-May, the villagers will stage a mass demonstration at the dam site
at the confluence of the Moon and Mekong Rivers in Ubol Ratchathani. Their
demand: open all the water gates to let the rivers run free once again.
The countdown has begun.
Why May? Because it is the time when fish from the Mekong River swim up the
Moon River to breed. Such natural fish migration had endowed the river with
fish abundance through time immemorial. The livelihoods of millions of Isan
peasants along the 700-kilometre-long Moon River had depended on this
natural phenomena. The Pak Moon Dam changed all that.
For the past 10 years, the villagers have suffered tremendously. Their
homes were flooded. The rapids-the fishes' spawning habitats-were blasted.
The river became blocked and polluted. No more fish. No more livelihoods.
No more so this May onwards, the villagers declared.
It's too optimistic to expect an easy concession from a giant corporation
such as the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. Given the
importance of face here, it's mostly likely that the authorities might
resort to a crackdown. It's also more likely that the crackdown would be
reported as a legitimate measure against violent, anti-development,
law-breaking mobs-thanks to the state indoctrination that makes the public
believe that dams are symbols of progress.
No matter how things turn out, the Pak Moon villagers' decision to drop
compensation demands for the return of the Isan people's bloodstream marks
an important step in Thailand's grassroots movements.
Right from the start, the Pak Moon villagers told EGAT officials that
fishing is their main source of livelihood. That the dam will block fish
migration and destroy fish abundance. That they did not want the dam
because any compensation could not match the losses.
Right from the start, EGAT's scheme was fraud, with poor information and
implementation. Accurate numbers of affected villagers were not available,
even after the dam's construction. The adverse impacts on fish stocks and
public health was overlooked.
Now, the World Commission on Dams calls EGAT's Pak Moon Dam a grave
mistake. The 136-megawatts dam can only produce 40 megawatts, and none at
all during the rainy season. Irrigation benefits turned out to be zero.
Before the dam, 265 fish species were recorded. Only 96 species remained
after the dam construction. The much-lauded fish ladder failed to
facilitate fish migration and it became a farce.
In other words, the villagers have been correct all along.
What should we do with a state mistake this huge? So far, EGAT has been
successful in making the public view the Pak Moon controversy as a
compensation wrangle. By doing so, it can paint the villagers as greedy
people with endless demands. To undo mistakes, we must view the Pak Moon
struggle as it is. The crux of the matter isn't about money. It's about the
local people's basic rights to protect their livelihood sources and
self-reliance. It's about the ruling elites' belief in technology and
progress at the cost of ordinary people and the environment.
The villagers have truth on their side. But whether or not they'll succeed
in undoing the dam violence depends very much on public and media
understanding.
The media need to see through state lies to understand that the state's
think-big, top-down policy is violence itself, because it hurts small
people everywhere, not only at Pak Moon. Only then will peace at the Moon
River have a chance.
***********************************
Southeast Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN)
25/5 Moo 2
Soi Sukhapiban 27
Changkhien-Jed yod Rd.
Chang Phuek
Muang Chiang Mai 50300
Thailand
Tel&Fax (66) 53-221157
Email: searin@chmai.loxinfo.co.th