[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L LS: Pak Mun: Dam decommissioning is the answer (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net -----
From owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net Tue Jul 25 14:36:24 2000
Return-Path: <owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net>
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id OAA03525
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Tue, 25 Jul 2000 14:36:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net
Received: [(from mjdomo@localhost)
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id e6PIPif04163
for irn-mekong-list; Tue, 25 Jul 2000 11:25:44 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net)]
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000 11:25:44 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <200007251825.e6PIPif04163@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
subject: LS: Pak Mun: Dam decommissioning is the answer
Sender: owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
Bangkok Post July 25, 2000
Dam decommissioning is the answer
An American fish expert says the immediate decommissioning of the Pak Moon
Dam will yield a number of benefits that will be enjoyed by a lot more
people than just protesting villagers
by Vasana Chinvarakorn
For a man who has studied tropical fish in the Moon River since 1985, and
in the Chao Phraya and the Mekong since 1970, the answer to the question of
how to resolve the dispute over the Pak Moon Dam is as clear as broad
daylight: Dr Tyson Roberts says the dam should be pulled down, and there's
no time like the present.
"In view of its evident defects, including extremely poor performance in
generating electricity, serious consideration should be given to
decommissioning the Pak Moon Dam now," argued the American ichthyologist
from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
"True decommissioning means both the physical removal of the dam and
restoration of the river as much as possible to the conditions that existed
before the installation of the dam," Dr Roberts said, stressing the job
should not be undertaken by the Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand (Egat), which gave birth to the controversial project twelve years
ago.
In fact, the American scientist said the Pak Moon Dam's run-of-river design
would make it the relatively easiest and cheapest to dismantle of all the
dams in Thailand.
Such a mission would also set an historic precedent in Thailand, where Dr
Roberts foresees the urgent need to bring down "all the 49 large hydropower
dams in the country" before the end of the century.
The researcher's bold idea is basically prompted by his concern for the
continual decline in natural resources in the entire Mekong region. The
trends have already become apparent in upstream areas in mainland China,
where he said there was no longer any significant migratory fish, probably
due to serious deforestation, dam construction and a high level of
sedimentation in the waterways.
The only remaining healthy wild capture fisheries in the Mekong basin
today, said Dr Roberts, were restricted to the lower zone, covering the
southernmost part of Laos just below Khone Falls, Cambodia, and perhaps
Vietnam.
"It is unethical and immoral for the Thai government to cause similar
damage to neighbouring countries. The push for large hydropower projects in
Laos is a complete disgrace," the scientist said with frustration.
Back in the 1970s, when Dr Roberts first arrived in Thailand, Ubon
Ratchathani had, in his view, the country's best markets for Mekong wild
capture fishes. Unfortunately, construction of the Pak Moon Dam has since
wiped out a large number of rapids, the natural habitat for much aquatic
life, while the existence of the blocks of concrete across the Moon River
continues to make migration of over a hundred species of fish impossible.
For the American ichthyologist, the fish ladder, touted in Egat's
multi-million-baht advertisements, is "virtually useless". The myriad
spawning and feeding patterns of migratory fishes in the tropical rivers,
such as in the Moon, have effectively baffled all public relations
campaigns for the ladder.
A report by the Fisheries Department, for instance, found only 26 percent
of fish species in the Mekong, at a maximum length of 30 centimetres, are
able to cross the steep ladder. Dr Roberts said similar structures in
Western countries, prototypes of the one at Pak Moon Dam, were built to
accommodate a limited number of species with very definite migratory patterns.
"Can you imagine a female fish with half-a-billion eggs swimming up the
ladder? As far as I know, no pla buek (giant catfish), the most important
migratory species, has ever used it. And yet, that's the least of the problems.
"Worse, the ladder does not allow fish to move downstream, and thus its
life cycle cannot be completed."
The most worrisome consequence for Dr Roberts was how the dams, regardless
of the design, have brought about "unnatural, extremely unfriendly"
reservoirs in which no fish can live in.
He said the notion that the Pak Moon Dam has maintained the river's ebb and
flow was false, for the waterways behind the dam have already been deprived
of nutrients, the base of the food chain for nearly all riverine fishes.
Problems with such mitigation measures, the fish expert continued, stem
from the widespread creed in the prowess of technology to fix things. It
seems technocrats, ranging from those at the World Bank down to local
officers, have continued to embrace this techno credo relentlessly.
The 12-year-old Pak Moon Dam saga, for example, has generated hefty reports
by both national and international agencies praising the project. The World
Bank's Operations Evaluation Department in 1998 insisted the dam did not
cause any decline in the fish population in the Moon River, while the Egat
resettlement programme for displaced villagers was described as
"exceedingly generous".
On the other hand, in his recent evaluation of the worldwide environmental
impact assessment (EIA) industry, Dr Roberts pointed out that the so-called
mitigation measures espoused in the EIA reports "seldom" work having been
"poorly conceived or not conscientiously carried out".
"The real reason many EIA reports are kept confidential or secret is
because they are so bad that they disgrace the companies producing them and
paying for them, and bring disrepute to the projects they endorse,
regardless of whether the projects are environmentally-sound or not."
Accordingly, Dr Roberts deplored the Egat's dubious manner in pushing for
the construction of the Pak Moon Dam. He charged the state enterprise
violated the law when it decided to arbitrarily amend the boundaries of the
adjacent Kaeng Tana National Park to facilitate the dam's construction.
Meanwhile, at the height of the Pak Moon Dam controversy, the Fisheries
Department has been quiet on the issue of the impact of the dam on aquatic
resources, which, the American scientist noted, was a grave mistake.
At present, even if the Pak Moon Dam was to be decommissioned, it was not
known whether or when the ecosystem of the Moon River would be fully restored.
But every thousand-kilometre trip needs a first step, Dr Roberts
emphasised, and the notorious project of Ubon Ratchathani might as well
serve as a test case.
"I'd say no dams should ever be considered in any way, whatsoever, without
inclusion of a plan for decommissioning right from the beginning.
"After all, the problems of dams are not just about migratory fishes, nor
about an integrity of one watershed. It is the integrity of the global
biosphere which is at stake here.
"I am not just an idealist. I am pro-development, pro-economy, pro-civil
society, and pro-Thailand. But I am anti-Pak Moon Dam, in particular. If
you cannot live satisfactorily within your own environment, you won't be
able to live at all."
- This article is based in part on Dr Tyson Roberts' essay titled "A Plea
for Pro-environment EIA", published in the Natural History Bulletin of Siam
Society,
----- End of forwarded message from owner-irn-mekong@netvista.net -----