No need to revisit dam

No need to revisit dam

For years, the public has protested in great numbers against the unwanted Mae Wong Dam. This mass demonstration took place in Bangkok the year before the military coup and Section 44. (Bangkok  Post file photo)
For years, the public has protested in great numbers against the unwanted Mae Wong Dam. This mass demonstration took place in Bangkok the year before the military coup and Section 44. (Bangkok Post file photo)

Emotions are running high after the controversial Mae Wong dam project was dusted off amid reports it might be up for a possible fast-track approval through Section 44 of the interim charter. Extreme sentiments, however, do not lie at the heart of the matter regarding this large-scale project. It's data, and its careful consideration to determine whether the project is a worthy investment.

The use of Section 44 would allow the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to forego this necessary aspect to approve the 13-billion-baht dam project which will inundate the lush forest in Nakhon Sawan province.

According to local media, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chatchai Sarikulya suggested the decades-old project be fast-tracked through the special, unchecked military order. He later denied the reports, though his proposal triggered an uproar from environmental groups which threaten street protests unless the ministry is willing to talk it out.

A network of 133 environmental advocacy groups and 248 activists issued a joint statement railing against the minister's idea as Gen Chatchai shrugged off the opposition and insisted the dam should be built.

In defending their standpoints, the authority and environmentalists cite different aspects of the project, first proposed by the Royal Irrigation Department 34 years ago. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives insist the dam, to be built in a national park, will help relieve the country's water shortage problem and provide more water for irrigation in the upper North.

Environmental groups, meanwhile, believe the proposed reservoir is hardly worth the cost as its construction will destroy fertile forests that are natural sources of water itself. Not to mention that the areas to be flooded by the dam's reservoir are home to hundreds of wildlife species including endangered ones such as tigers.

It's no exaggeration that arguments over proposals to build any dams in the country have followed the same fault line: a dilemma between the state's ever-increasing need to secure more water supplies and environmentalists' concerns for ecology. Still, debates over a possible return of the Mae Wong dam project this time have been exceptionally noisy as they are overlaid with political overtones.

The crux of the matter, however, should still be about the project's cost-effectiveness. In this case, there are good reasons why the Mae Wong dam never got off the ground despite being in the irrigation department's pipeline for three decades. The feasibility study, carried out in 1989, was rejected at least twice by state agencies. Even though the plan was finally approved by the Yingluck Shinawatra administration in 2012 as part of its water resources management scheme, it ran into such a stiff protest that it was again put on the shelf where it has been for several decades.

It was Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha who ordered the project be studied again. The truth, however, is the government does not need to consider the fine details. The dam is planned for a national park. Its reservoir will inundate more than 13,000 rai of forest that serves as a buffer area of the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary.

This aspect alone is at odds with the government's efforts to protect or reclaim forest areas, which it has heralded as its marquee policy.

Environmentalists are right in the Mae Wong dam debate. While there are alternative ways to secure water supplies or manage water resources so they can be distributed more efficiently, there is no way to replace a forest ecosystem. Once it's lost, it's gone forever.

Editorial

Bangkok Post editorial column

These editorials represent Bangkok Post thoughts about current issues and situations.

Email : anchaleek@bangkokpost.co.th

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (3)