Pak Mun Dam

Located in Ubon, roughly 5 hours outside of Khon Kaen, the Pak Mun Dam is known as one of the World Bank’s worst failures because of the thousands of lives that it has ruined. The Dam was erected in 1994 after the Thai government asked the World Bank for a loan in order to construct a dam that would generate power for Ubon City. In theory, it was a good idea, but the Thai government and EGAT, the electricity company that constructed and now runs the Dam, never consulted the villagers before and while the Dam was being erected, which has led to the violation of community rights.

The Dam was supposed to produce 136 megawatts, but during the rainy season, it is only able to generate 20 megawatts. Yet to make people in Ubon City believe that the Dam is their sole source of energy, EGAT created a blackout in the city for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, it is a strategy that worked since many city dwellers continue to believe that the Dam is the main source for their electricity.

However, the worst consequence of the Dam, in the eyes of the villagers, has been the loss of fish in the Mun River. Research shows that only 45 of the 265 fish species in the Pak Mun area still remain. As a result, fishermen’s catches have decreased by 60- 80%. Furthermore, constant flooding means that vegetable and rice fields are no longer viable options. As a result, many families have a hard time feeding themselves, and many people have lost their livelihoods since it was common for men to fish to feed their families and to also bring to the market. As a last resort, 31.2% of all fishermen upstream of the Dam have switched professions. Such a steep decline in the number of fish that remain in the Mun River has led to the ruination of a culture centered on water, fish, and the rapids.

To “help” solve the fish crisis, the government introduced fish and prawn to the Mun River, but they did not survive since they were not used to the environment. After that failed, EGAT built a fish ladder to help fish migrate (the destruction of the rapids meant that many fish were unable to migrate upstream), but they used the exact fish ladder used to help salmon migrate in the northwest of America. Clearly, a fish ladder used in America for salmon is not the same fish ladder that should ever be used for indigenous fish in Thailand.

Some people have been compensated, but thousands of families have not. The dam is currently open for 4 months out of the year, but this does little to help the situation since those months are not when fish migrate upstream. The only real solution to the problem is to have the gates open year round, but EGAT won’t allow that because it would tarnish its reputation and all of its dams would then be looked at with a more critical eye.

The 9 of us who decided to go to the Pak Mun Dam were able to meet the main lawyer, some NGOs (that’s what they call human rights activists), and the village leaders. It was an interesting exchange, but it was also frustrating because the villagers just recently decided to tackle the problem through a legal strategy, something that is rarely done in Thailand, and expected us to have legal advice for them, which we didn’t. It was also really sad to see these people fight for 20 years and to have had very little to show for their efforts. They were very unorganized in that the Assembly of the Poor, the main organization that all of the villagers negatively affected are part of, has many different views on what should be done next: some want the dam open, some want it closed, some just want money. Plus, it doesn’t help that the 2 NGOs who had been helping the villagers for the past 20 years both passed away last year.

After the exchange, we went to see the Dam, which was quite impressive looking. It was an odd sensation to walk on something that has caused so much pain and suffering to thousands of people. It looks like any other dam, and yet it has wreaked havoc on the ecological system in the region, the people, and the culture.

Then, we met with a local farmer who said that EGAT installed irrigation systems throughout the region as a ploy to try and make people believe that the Dam is necessary for agricultural purposes. This too is a fallacy, at least according to the farmer we spoke with, who said that he was charged Bt75 per hour for the irrigation system, which no one can afford, and that it is completely unnecessary during the rainy season since the crops are watered naturally every single day.

Then, we went on our way back to Khon Kaen, and I walked into my room at 1:30 AM after it was decided that there wasn’t much else for us to do there. While I had a wonderful time and feel that I know a lot more than I ever did before, I hadn’t even heard of the Pak Mun Dam before this past week, I wish there was more that we could’ve done to help the people, and I also wish that we could’ve stayed for longer since the original plan was to stay the night. I would’ve liked to have had the opportunity to speak more with the villagers. We will be going back for Unit 3, which is later this month, but I just with that there was something that we could do for them in the immediate sense.

The best part of the trip was meeting people who have never lost faith in their cause. Despite all of the setbacks that they’ve faced in the past 20 years, they continue to come up with new ways to take back what they have lost: their way of life. The people who are fighting will continue to fight until they die because they have come this far, and there is no turning back at this point. Throughout this entire program, I have been amazed by the capacity of the human mind and heart, and the villagers of Pak Mun Dam have only added to my newfound realization that people are capable of overcoming amazing, seemingly impossible challenges.