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DAM-L LS: Pak Mun gates opened for one year (fwd)



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Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 10:50:46 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200112171850.fBHIokc19944@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
Subject: LS: Pak Mun gates opened for one year
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Dear Friends

The Pak Mun gates will remain open for one year, from June 2001-June 2002. 
This was according to a cabinet resolution on Decmeber 11. The following 
update comes from Southeast Asia Rivers Network. An article from the Nation 
follows this update.

"The reason is the Government wanted the gates to be open for one full year
to complete the data collection. It is also as a result of the pressure
from the villagers who held the long march, the Ubon study team and the 
committee
for social reparations.

The villagers at Pak Mun are very happy with this resolution. However,  they
still demand that the gates be opened permanently. After the Government 
made the
resolution, the villagers changed their route by not going to BKK but
walking within Isaan (NE Thailand) through the Mun-Chi-Songkam river basins
and will walk along the right bank of the Mekong river. It will take about
8-12 months and 2,000 kms long.

At Pak Mun, the water is going down, the rapids are recovering and fish are
migrating back to the Mekong. We found 130 fish species and hope will have
more. We are very busy with the data collection and we found that the
livelihood of the villagers is recovering. Most of them are able to catch
the fish for their food and income. Many of them return to their land along
the river, which once was submerged, for growing vegetable. In
January-February, the river bank will be covered with riverine vegetables.

The gates of Bang Pakong dam have also been opened. The Bang Pakong dam is 
located in East
Thailand. After it was completed, it created many environmental problems
particularly the water pollution and riverbank erosion.  The villagers
living downstream are campaigning for the dam to be decommissioned. The dam was
built by RID and the FS conducted by JICA.

Long march opens the gates

The Nation
Published on Dec 16, 2001

For Pak Mool villagers, the decision to leave open the sluice gates of Pak 
Mool dam for one year was not an act of mercy by the government, but rather 
the fruit of their prolonged 70-day street protest.

About 130 villagers effected by the Pak Mool and Rasi Salai dams were 
walking along a small street in Nakhon Ratchasima on Tuesday when the 
Cabinet announced that it had agreed with a proposal by the Prime 
Minister's Office to keep the dams' gates open for one year. The villagers 
were on the 64th day of their long march from the Pak Mool dam site in Ubon 
Ratchathani to Government House in Bangkok to demand the gates of both Pak 
Mool and Rasi Salai dams be kept open permanently.

Although, the Cabinet decision only concerned Pak Mool and not Rasi Salai 
dam as the villagers had demanded, they nevertheless were satisfied with 
the resolution and changed the destination of the march to the Northeast 
region instead of heading to the capital.

On October 9, the villagers left the dam site which they had occupied and 
turned into a protest site some months before. They believed this would 
force politicians in the House, 730 km away from the dam site, to listen to 
them after many months of voicing their demands.

Over the past eight years since the Pak Mool dam was built in 1993, the 
villagers could not make a living from the Mool River since fish could not 
swim up through the dam from the Mekong River to lay eggs. The "river of 
life" for these Northeasterners became completely useless to them after the 
Rasi Salai dam was finished in 1995.

The villagers have turned themselves from fresh water fishermen into road 
warriors armed with banners. Through the streets they roamed on their 
odyssey to Bangkok, staying overnight at temples along the way. At the 
moment they are camping in a small temple in Nakhon Ratchasima.

In 69 days from Ubon Ratchathani they have passed through Yasothon, Si Sa 
Ket, Roi-et, Surin, Buri Ram and now Nakhon Ratchasima, the villagers' 
schedule is repeated day by day.

Getting up at about 4 am, they refresh themselves and rush into the street, 
forming two lines as they prepare to start the day's journey.

Before the first light of day the march begins. With banners and flags 
demanding the permanent opening of all sluice gates of Pak Mool and Rasi 
Salai dams in their hands and plastic bottles of water hanging around their 
waists, the villagers walk slowly in silence.

A cassette of a monk chanting is played through an old speaker mounted on a 
pick-up truck loaded up with essentials which accompanies them.

"This is to show the public that our protest is not a violent action. 
Dhamma is always in our minds," said Boonmee Khamruang , a Pak Mool 
villager who is leading the rally. Normally, the parade continues for three 
to four hours every day. The responsibility for searching for a temple in 
which to stay overnight belongs to a group of leaders. They always look for 
a destination that is not more than 15km away, otherwise it would beyond 
the ability of the villagers to walk to it.

Breakfast is cooked when the rally reaches that day's destination.

To urban folk, the villagers might seem to be crazy people who are 
torturing themselves just to lure public and government interest, but to 
rural residents who have suffered a similar problem, the peaceful rally is 
the best way.

Through about 500 km from Ubon Ratchathani to Nakhon Ratchasima, the rally 
has received moral support from many people. Some give them small packets 
of sticky rice, some provide dried fish, and some help them to distribute 
leaflets to inform others of the objective of the rally.

Significantly, the protesters have received moral support from a friend in 
India. Medha Patkar, one of the leaders of Indian protests against a series 
of dams in the Narmada River, one of the country's holy rivers, visit them 
when they were in Buri Ram.

After more than 16 years of fighting against the dams, Medha's Save Narmada 
Movement was successful in halting the Sardar Sarovar dam, the largest of 
165 dams designated to block the Narmada River. The dam was designed to be 
139 metres high and would have required the relocation of about 300,000 
villagers. Construction of the dam eventually stopped at about 90 metres.

"We [the movement] are here with you. Don't give up," she encouraged the 
villagers.

Although the dam gates are now open and the rally's destination has 
changed, the desire of the villagers remains.

"Take the dam out, return our river," one villager demanded.

So, the rally goes on around the Northeast. For how long, none of the 
protesters could say, but they are determined that they will not give up 
until the dams are completely knocked down.

Pennapa Hongthong

THE NATION 


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