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Pak Mool, a study in all that's bad about dams The Nation, Thailand - 24 November 2000 Pak Mool, a study in all that's bad about damsA RECENT international study concludes that large dam projects do more harm than good, though this has yet to change the stubborn attitude of Egat, reports Two contradictory messages on large dam projects were passed to the public almost simultaneously this week. The first came from the burning down of the makeshift camp set up by protesting villagers at the Pak Mool dam site in Ubon Ratchathani. The second message, which did not generate the same kind of headlines, was the conclusion of the World Commission on Dams' (WCD's) study of the failure of large dams around the world. The WCD is an independent organisation set up in 1998 by aid agencies, industry, governments and non-governmental organisations, to evaluate the benefits delivered by large dams around the world. The commission spent two years reviewing 125 large dams in Turkey, Norway, the United States, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa. Chosen as the case study for Thailand was the World Bank-financed Pak Mool dam, which was built by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat). The WCD's report states quite clearly that large dams have more negative than positive impacts on the environment, the economy and society. The commission found that at least 40 million people have been displaced by dam projects world-wide, while the livelihoods of many more living downstream were affected but not recognised. Compensation or resettlement programmes were often inadequate, it said. Moreover, the commission found that large dams are the most important reason for the extinction of fish stocks and the degradation of forests. It also found that the dams brought more benefits to urban people than to the rural poor. While the WCD was trying to get its message out to the public, Egat, a state agency devoted to mega-development projects, was involved in the events leading to the violence against Pak Mool villagers. The villagers have been waiting for fair compensation since their livelihood was wiped out by the Pak Mool dam's construction in the early 1990s. Throughout the decade that the villagers have been protesting against the dam, and even before construction started, Egat has never opened its ears to their voices of opposition. Moreover, in its eyes, the protesting villagers are just greedy people who always demand more and more while obstructing the country's development. The Mae Mool Mun Yuen protest camp is evidence of the failure of Egat. Thousands of villagers affected by the Pak Mool dam and other projects moved out from their devastated communities and established themselves at the site of the Pak Mool dam. They believed that abandoning their old villages might attract more interest from the government, leading to some form of relief from their hardship. In the more than one year that the villagers have occupied the dam site, Egat has encouraged acts of violence against them many times. Early this year, at the dam site's power plant, a confrontation occurred between the opposition villagers and Egat staff plus a local pro-dam group supported by Egat. When some villagers rallied in Bangkok and climbed into the compound of Government House to see the prime minister, the Chuan government met them with batons and a legal suit. The arson on Sunday at Mae Mool Mun Yuen camp, which happened just four days after the WCD released its study in London, represents yet another instance of Egat's stubbornness and dogmatic refusal to review its mistakes. Egat may have the right to burn down the protest site, which the villagers had illegally occupied, but for the villagers, the makeshift camp was not just a protest site but their new home. The villagers claimed they had the moral right to seize the dam site since the dam exiled them from their old communities and left them to live alongside a river whose fish stocks have been wiped out. It does not matter what the motive for the arson was. The undeniable message was that Egat behaves in a fashion that is contrary to civility and society's wishes. Instead of paying attention to the WCD's report and seeking a fair way to deal with the villagers and thus end this prolonged conflict, Egat decided to exploit the current political power vacuum by organising a mob to overrun the villagers' protest site. And instead of reconsidering its actions, Egat remains proud of the way it has prevailed, even after the world community has been told by an international commission that large dams deliver more harm than good. The WCD is going to organise a meeting here in Bangkok at the Central Plaza Hotel today. Members of the Assembly of the Poor will rally at the meeting to condemn what Egat has done to the Pak Mool villagers. This may be the only way to drag Egat down to earth and accept the truth that large dams and violence are not the answers to development. The Nation
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