by Sarah Drinkwater, with contributions from Aviva Imhof, International Rivers Network
The people of the Mun River, in northeastern Thailand, once lived simple, self-sustaining lives growing rice in small terraced fields, planting vegetable gardens along the riverbanks and fishing in the river. This region is hotter and drier than much of Thailand, so only one meager rice crop a year is possible, and people have long depended on fishing to feed their families and for trade.
In 1994, Pak Mun Dam was completed, destroying local fisheries and taking a tremendous toll on the people and communities who traditionally depend on the Mun, the largest tributary of the Mekong. After several years of protest, the Thai government agreed to pay compensation to villagers for loss of fishing income for the three-year construction period, but compensation was never paid for the permanent loss of fisheries. Meanwhile, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the World Bank claimed that the project was a success. They accused villagers of being disruptive and greedy.
To coordinate their efforts to fight the dam, affected communities formed the Assembly of the Poor (AOP), which has grown into a people’s movement uniting communities from all over the country that are affected by development projects. In 1997, as a result of a 100-day protest by 20,000 poor villagers outside government buildings, the government promised further compensation. However, the government later reneged on this promise.
Fed up with broken promises of compensation, in 1999 the villagers started a campaign to permanently open the dam gates and restore the river. They established a protest village at the dam site called Mae Mun Man Yuen, or Long Live the Mun River, and vowed to remain until their demands were met. They stayed there for two long years, living in tiny makeshift huts in the dam parking lot. They occupied the dam itself for several months. In 2000, a case study by the World Commission on Dams that heavily criticized the Pak Mun Dam significantly aided their cause.
Bowing to national and international criticism and pressure, in June of 2001 the Thai government ordered the dam’s floodgates opened for a one-year study of fisheries, the social impact of the dam and the dam’s contribution to Thailand’s electric power needs. To provide an independent counterpoint to the government’s studies, AOP teamed up with South East Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) to monitor the changes during the trial period.
SEARIN pioneered an innovative research method. Called Thai Bahn (Thai Villager) research, local fisher folk were recruited to be the principle researchers, thereby drawing on local knowledge. Using this method, SEARIN and AOP have been able to stretch their limited resources, empower community members to understand and conduct biological studies, and gather knowledge about long-term changes to the river that only local people would have observed.
The natural flows of the one-year trial period allowed people to resume their traditional ways of life and eased resource conflicts among river communities. Local fish species not seen for eight years came back, and researchers found a total of 156 fish species had returned to the Mun. Newly exposed rapids and islands were supporting 112 plant species, many of which are traditionally used for food and medicine and for religious ceremonies. In the absence of sudden and perilous fluctuations in current created by the dam, people could again take to the river in boats for fishing and trade. Riverbank gardens flourished. And local people reported that their ability to return to fishing, farming and other longstanding practices central to their culture made them feel more confident that they might be able to pass their culture on to their children.
In late September of 2002, the government committee, after reviewing only the report submitted by the government team at Ubon University – and not the one submitted by the Assembly of the Poor and SEARIN – decided that the dam gates should be opened for only four months out of the year. Although this is a positive step, it is only a step. The ecosystem as well as the lives of the people cannot be restored in only four months. SEARIN and AOP will continue to push the government to permanently open the gates and eventually decommission the dam. While decommissioning may be a long shot given the precedent it would set, this dam may be one of the world’s best candidates.
SEARIN also has been involved in efforts focused on the Rasi Salai Dam, another dam built along the Mun River. After a long struggle, communities affected by the dam were successful in convincing the Thai government to open the dam’s gates in 2000. The gates have been open ever since, bringing the river back to life. In 2003, Rivers for Life: the Second International Meeting of Dam-Affected People and their Allies, organized by International Rivers Network, SEARIN and the Assembly of the Poor, was held in Thailand along the Mun River. The conference took place on land that had been flooded by the Rasi Salai Dam. The success of the villagers of Rasi Salai offered inspiration to dam-affected people from all over the world.
SEARIN has received three grants from Global Greengrants Fund. The first, $3,500 in 2000, allowed the group to buy a video camera, which has been a valuable tool for documenting protests, meetings and other events. Video footage is used for both local education and as a resource for broader efforts. The second and third grants, $5,000 in 2001 and $3,600 in 2002, helped support the campaign for decommissioning Pak Mun and Rasi Salai dams and halting the government practice of blasting rapids along the Mekong River to aid navigation at the expense of fisheries.
Because of the Pak Mun Dam, villagers living along the Mun are at grave risk of losing forever the traditional ways of life that have supported them and bound them together in communities. Now, ten years since the dam became operational, local skills and practices are on the verge of being lost. Deepening poverty has prompted younger members of these communities to move to the cities for menial jobs to help support their families. This has led to the separation of families and an escalating loss of culture. The best hope for these communities is to quickly return the river to its natural flows before the losses mount further.