The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) told villagers protesting against the Wang Heeb dam to go to the Administrative Court if they want the project to be scrapped.
"If anyone doesn't agree with the project, he or she could file a complaint to the court right away," said Thongplew Kongjun, director-general of RID, the agency responsible for providing water to Ban Wang Heeb in tambon Na Luang Sen in Thung Song district.
The RID's chief was responding to mounting resistance against the project after the cabinet last Tuesday gave the green light to the 2.3-billion-baht dam despite ongoing local resistance.
Today, local residents are holding peaceful protest campaigns. Their activities are symbolic, and include burning effigies of ministerial figures and officials. Residents from other areas also joined the fight against the dam project.
The contested Wang Heeb dam project, which will cost 2.3 billion baht and provide water to 12,821 families in 24 villages living across 13,401 rai, was conceived over two decades ago after residents of the area asked the late King Bhumibol to help remedy droughts.
The RID admitted the environmental impact assessment (EIA) that was sent to the cabinet was conducted 15 years ago, and was last updated almost a decade ago in 2009.
Although villagers said land use had changed and a new, alternative micro-irrigation system might be more viable, Mr Thongplew was adamant that the project must go forward.
Hannarong Yaowalers, chairman of the Thai-Water Partnership, said the RID cannot start construction right away, and warned the RID would face trouble and fierce resistance. Local residents, he said, have protested against the plan for over a decade because the previous EIA failed to include key stakeholders.
Out of the 50 public hearings, the 40 families who will be displaced by the construction were invited only once, he said.
A team appointed to review the project by Deputy Agricultural Minister Wiwat Salyakamthorn said the Wang Heeb dam is no longer feasible, and that there are alternative solutions such as small irrigation ponds and weirs that can produce similar results but can help preserve the watershed and the forest upstream.