An anti-dam committee in Northern Thailand submits complaints in response to their provincial governor’s secret meetings to construct controversial dams in the area.
Villagers in Saaeab subdistrict, Song district, Phrae province in northern Thailand are outraged at the reveal that their governor has been pushing for dam construction on the Yom River.
In the morning of 19 August 2015, an anti-dam committee with members from four villages in the area met to respond to their governor’s actions. About a hundred villagers were in attendance. The four villages represented were: Baan Don Chai village, Baan Don Chai Sak Tong village, Baan Don Keaw village, and Baan Mae Ten village.
Anti-dam villagers meet in response to their governor’s secret meetings for dam construction
Pisau Soingeun, one of the committee’s leaders, said that after an investigation it was revealed that the governor of Phrae had been in secret meetings to push for dam construction. Pisau also presented proof of these meetings in the form of documents. The most recent meeting had been the 5th secret meeting to push for the dam.
Last year, in 2014, the 4-villages anti-dam committee had submitted a letter to local authorities to oppose dam construction and received official reassurance from the Ministry of Interior’s Damrongdhama Center, a center to accept public complaints, that the project had been cancelled. In addition, there had been a national water management strategic meeting in Phitsanulok on 18 August 2015, the results of which were that there would be no plan for major dams on the Yom River for the next decade.
Anti-dam leaders propose an official complaint to the capital to halt all dam construction planning
Therefore, the reveal of their governor’s secret meetings had effectively betrayed the locals and destroyed their trust. The anti-dam committee condemns the governor’s actions as “two-faced,” deliberate undisclosure of necessary information regarding the area. Pisau also mentioned that the governor’s secret meetings also included a request for advice from the governor of Uttaradit province on evacuating villagers. Earlier, the Uttaradit governor had initiated the Pa Juk dam project.
Somming Muengrong, another committee leader, called for the governor to halt his discussions, and to release the content of these secret meetings. Somming said that he will present an official complaint to the Ministry of Interior’s Damrongdhama Center and the Prime Minister to request a halt to dam construction on the Yom.
Gathered villagers raise their hands in solidarity against secret dam construction procedures
The proposed complaint also includes 14 reasons to not build dams on the Yom, backed by research. These reasons include: tthat the proposed dams cannot solve the flood problem, that the the proposed dams will destroy the world’s largest naturally existing golden teak forests and other valuable tree species existing in a forest area of 41 thousand rai, that no forests are planned to be grown to compensate for the destroyed trees, that local livelihoods will be destroyed, that the proposed dams will be on a fault line, and that the proposed dams will not even produce electricity for the area.
The complaint also includes 14 suggestions on better ways to solve the flooding problem that does not involve dams. Suggestions include: preservation and enlargement of the existing forests, implementation of a dike system, and construction of rain retention areas for each village so that local water sources are more readily available.