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Re: DAM-L LS: Pak Mun: Dam decommissioning is the answer (fwd)
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Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 11:22:54 -0400
To: dam-l@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca
From: Philip Raphals <raphals@netaxis.qc.ca>
Subject: Re: DAM-L LS: Pak Mun: Dam decommissioning is the answer (fwd)
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Does anyone know where I can find Dr. Roberts' essay ("A Plea for
Pro-environment EIA", published in the Natural History Bulletin of Siam
Society) online, or how to contact him?
Thanks,
Phil Raphals
Helios Centre
raphals@centrehelios.org
At 02:40 PM 25/07/00 -0400, you wrote:
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>subject: LS: Pak Mun: Dam decommissioning is the answer
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>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,
>
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