The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) has pledged to scrap the controversial Mae Wong dam project if it can find sufficient alternatives to deal with water management issues.
Flashback: Thousands of dam opponents gathered at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre at Pathumwan intersection in September of last year after a 10-day protest march by the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation from Nakhon Sawan to Bangkok. (Photo by Thiti Wannamontha)
Somkiat Prajamwong, director of the Office of Project Management at the RID, said officials have agreed to appoint an independent organisation to appraise the value of the Mae Wong forest and study the water management proposal.
He was speaking Wednesday after an Office of Natural Resources and Environment Policy and Planning (Onep) panel, which was tasked with considering the dam's environmental and health impacts, failed to reach a conclusion based on two reports into the project.
An initial assessment in favour of pursuing the dam project was submitted by the RID, but was countered by a second report from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP).
The panel met at the Onep office, where environmentalist Sasin Chalermlarp, secretary-general of the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, has been staging a sit-in since Monday. The activist said his protest was intended to give moral support to the committee to make an honest decision.
Onep secretary-general Kasemsun Chinnavaso said "the reports came to very different conclusions".
The reports were contradictory because they did not reflect the same set of data, he said. The RID looked at forests surrounding the Mae Wong site in terms of the amount of land area they cover, while the DNP report took into account whole local ecosystems.
"If the data is incorrect, the rest of the project will suffer. For example, it will be impossible to calculate a budget," he said.
The Onep committee has asked RID and the DNP to discuss their findings and make necessary adjustments so the panel can reconsider the research.
The committee meanwhile invited Mr Sasin to present his personal research into alternatives to the dam.
He told a Wednesday afternoon meeting that his water diversion system would cost only two billion baht, compared to the Mae Wong dam project, which he said will require 13 billion baht of state cash.
His plan would protect villages and agricultural land from floods, whilst preserving natural resources, he said.
Mr Somkiat said RID will consider Mr Sasin's study. The activist has also pledged to submit his alternative water management study to the Department of Water Resources.
Earlier in the day, about 100 police officers and soldiers arrived at the Onep office.
They asked Mr Sasin and other environmentalists to call off plans for a panel debate outside the Onep building and air their grievances through press interviews instead. The forces said they feared the panel debate could escalate into a protest.
Naris Banmurn, field researcher at the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, said officers asked him to cooperate and follow National Council for Peace and Order regulations.
The researcher insisted the activists did not want to incite unrest and were not protesting. They agreed to allow their panelists to be interviewed by journalists instead of holding the debate outdoors.
"This way, we kept the content of our debate and conveyed our message to the media," Mr Naris said later.
Around 300 anti-dam campaigners turned out at the Onep office morning to hear Mr Sasin and other researchers present their ideas for water management.
A group of local leaders from Nakhon Sawan's Lad Yao district and areas surrounding the site of the Mae Wong dam project also handed officials a petition in favour of the dam. It was signed by 4,000 locals.
Sasin Chalermlarp, secretary-general of the Seub Nakhasathien Foundation, presented dam at a meeting of the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning. Meanwhile, a group supporting the planned Mae Wong dam signed a petition during a meeting at the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning, which believes the proposed dam would benefit the country's water management. (Photos by Pornprom Satrabhaya)
