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By Jose M. Galang Jr., Editor-in-Chief
(2nd of a series)
UBON RATCHATANI, Northeast Thailand — An
average of 24 billion cubic meters of water flows through the
600-kilometer Moon River every year. The river starts at the
mountainous area in the upper western side of Northeast Thailand,
meets another waterway, the Chi River, in the outskirts of Ubon
Ratchatani City in this province, and finally spills into the famous
Mekong River along the Thai border with Laos.
Since the 1980s, recognizing that this huge
water resource was only being “wasted,” the Thai government has
been undertaking studies on how the river can be harnessed to
produce electricity or to help irrigate farm lands in the area.
With financing from the World Bank and technical
assistance from the Asian Development Bank, the state-run
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) in 1991
started work on the Pak Mun Dam. The project included a
hydroelectric power plant designed to produce 280 gigawatthours (GWh)
of electricity annually which EGAT would tap during peak hours.
Thailand has been buying electricity from Laos to augment supply for
a steadily expanding economy.
EGAT became Thailand’s largest utility company
with its merger of three former regional electricity entities —
Yanhee Electricity Authority, Lignite Authority, and Northeastern
Electricity Authority. However, EGAT still accounts for 28 percent
of total capacity in the kingdom, and it still purchases electricity
from private power sources in the country and power plants in Laos.
The recent slowdown in economic growth has not
affected the rise in demand for electricity. In fiscal year 2001,
for instance, peak generation requirement hit 16,126 megawatts, up
by 8.1 percent from the previous year’s high. Increases in
industrial and agricultural sectors’ electricity usage continues
to expand, EGAT says, with total demand this year forecast to grow
by seven percent from last year.
Thus, the power firm’s continuing search for
more energy sources.
The idea behind the Pak Mun Dam is reminiscent
of many such projects pursued in many developing countries with the
help of official development assistance (ODA). However, while the
projects stand magnificently with their steel and concrete edifices,
the people who have inhabited the areas are forced to live in
conditions they are often not used to and only tend to make their
lives miserable.
In the Philippines, for instance, concerns have
been aired against the giant San Roque Dam on the Agno River in
Benguet. Communities along the Agno River, mostly indigenous
Ibaloy and Kankaney peoples who have been living in the area for
five centuries, are now in danger of being pushed elsewhere.
The magnificent Mekong River which originates
from southern China and flows through four Southeast Asian countries
— Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — is itself attracting an
increasing number of proponents for dams and other projects either
for electricity generation or for farm irrigation.
Worried about the experience of the people along
Moon River, civil society groups are now airing warnings against
similar effects of planned project in the Mekong Basin.
On the Pak Mun project itself, work commenced
amid strong objections from residents of communities along the river
banks and from environmentalists and civil society groups which
warned of serious damage to the environment. These various groups
held no less than 20 mass protests and demonstrations in Ubon
Ratchatani and in the Thai capital of Bangkok — with some of such
activities ending in violence — but all they got were
“promises” to look into their concerns.
Originally the dam was to be erected at the
Kaeng Ta Na Rapids area, located about four kilometers upstream from
where Pak Mun meets the Mekong, but studies that showed the
magnitude of potential damage to a large number of riverside
communities led EGAT to move the project further upstream.
By building the dam 5.5 km upstream from the
Mekong-Mun confluence, the project designers hoped to limit the
adverse effects to 379 households. If constructed on the original
site, the dam would have displaced an estimated 4,000 households,
EGAT’s own studies indicated.
At the new site in Hua Heo village, the dam
could still hold, according to EGAT estimates, up to 225 million
cubic meters of water in a 60-square km area if it keeps the water
level at 108 meters above mean sea level (mMSL).
From the start of construction in May 1991 to
its completion by June 1994, total costs ballooned to 6.6 billion
baht from the original projection of nearly 3.8 billion baht (or, at
prevailing exchange rates during those year, from $102.11 million
originally to $172.26 million at the time of completion).
During the dam construction, 238 households who
lived in the construction site at Hua Heo village were affected,
according to a recent report by the World Commission on Dams which
compiled findings of various experts on the project. After
impoundment of the reservoir, the report said, 705 households were
relocated because their residential land was inundated or isolated
by water, while another 706 households lost their agricultural land.
A total of 6,202 households had to be provided
compensation for the loss of fishing income. One of the major
complaints against the project was the probability of the fisherfolk
in the area losing access to their main source of livelihood.
Tomorrow: How not to build a dam
Mr. Galang has just completed a study trip to
Thailand as a senior fellow under The Nippon Foundation’s Asian
Public Intellectuals Fellowship Program
Part 1
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