Central Government Planned 'Development' Damages Thailand's Northeast Region by Phairath Khampha 26 August 2000 So-called development activities dreamed up with ill-planned schemes aiming at further enriching corrupt officials, politicians and contractors have done little to improve the quality of life and incomes of the local people in Thailand's Northeast Region. Rather, They have worsened their situation and impoverished many of them. "There are rice in the fields and fish in the water." That's what Thais said in the old days. In Isaan, the northeast of Thailand, this natural order of Thai agriculture has been turned upside-down. There many rice fields have been drowned in artificial lakes created by dams. And in both these new lakes and the once free-flowing rivers that the dams 'tamed', there are hardly any fish to be found. Dams are wreaking enormous ecological, cultural and economic damage in the northeast. For decades Isaan villagers have protested against government plans to construct them. The dams were deemed "necessary" to help in the "development of the country", the villagers whose livelihoods depended on the rivers and nearby farmland were told. All they did was to develop the finances of Thailand's economic and political elite. Authorities never discussed plans to build dams which affected villagers. Instead, these outsiders simply came in and started construction. Many dams already built are of hardly any use at all, including the Rasi Salai Dam in Sisaket and Pak Mun Dam in Ubon Ratchathani. Water held back by the Rasi Salai Dam is very salty and the Pak Mun Dam produces only a limited amount of electricity. Furthermore, the dams caused rivers to rise and created artificial lakes, which flooded valuable farmland and destroyed the agricultural economy of the region even if they did help vastly improve the economy and finances of a few politicians and businessmen in Bangkok. One of countless examples was the loss of Pa Boong Pa Tham, a public area where villagers grew crops and caught fish. According to Chavalit Vidhayanon, a specialist with Thailand's Fishery Department, there were thousands of fish species in the Mun River before the Pak Mun dam was built. He said since the dam was built the number of fish species has been reduced to only a few hundred. The dam blocks the watercourse that once connected the Mekong and the Mun rivers, causing irreparable ecological damage. Mekong River fish used to migrate up the Mun River to spawn. The fish have not been able to do so since construction began in the mid-1980s. The Rasi Salai Dam was built on the land that a thousand years ago was a seabed, covered with water. Underneath the reservoir created by Rasi Salao Dam is a large salt dome. The enormous volume of water held behind the dam inevitably came into contact with the salt deposits, dramatically increasing the salinity of both the water and soil in the area. Now the water in the dam cannot be used for drinking, irrigation, or other fresh water uses even though politicians and government officials had argued for the dam to be built because it ostensibly would have improved irrigation and drinking water supplies in the region. But then again, no one carried out proper pre-construction investigations for fear that the negative reports would prevent the construction of the dam thus causing a loss of opportunity for the political and economi elite to reap vast amounts of money through corrupt construction management practices. Indeed, large dams are not suited to a dry, salty region like Isaan that was once covered by water. In the old days, people in Isaan stored water in reservoirs known as barai. The size of the barai was significantly smaller than most of present-day dam-created reservoirs. The barai were always built a healthy distance away from salt domes whose locations were well known by local rural people with whom officials arrogantly refused to consult because they deemed them to be ignorant peasants. Furthermore, knowledge of this information could have prevented the construction of the dam. Hence, by using the barai salt was not able to contaminate the water and soil. Water in the local barai was used for drinking and household uses. For agriculture, water from rivers or small streams in nearby forests was used. Archaeologists have found evidence of barai almost everywhere in ancient communities established in dry areas of Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Isaan and Prachinburi. The very existence of the great Khmer empire of Angkor was largely due to its advanced network of barai. In his recent study, researched in conjunction with Kyoto University, Associate Professor Srisakara Vallibhotama points out that Isaan in the old days was neither poor nor disadvantaged. According to Srisakara, dry areas like Isaan - where annual rainfall was only around 1,200 millimetres - were, indeed, cradles of civilisation. Why? Because they were not prone to the unpredictable and devastating floods which were an ever-present threat to better-watered settlements. "In dry areas, people can control the environment. They know when rain falls and when it is dry season. Deciduous forests in dry areas were not as dangerous [an area to live in] as were tropical evergreen forests. Therefore, people in the old days preferred to settle down in dry areas," Srisakara says. He explained that the cities in the old days were built on slopes near highlands, down from which rivers flowed. People used the water collected in natural ponds, or dug ponds or barai themselves. "They realised that beneath the soil were salt domes. Therefore, they never dug deep ponds. They created new technology to make shallow ponds by pasting mud inside the ponds to protect the water from the salt beneath the soil." According to Srisakara, people from what are now Nakhon Ratchasima and Sakhon Nakhon provinces grew rice by sewing rice grains in small holes, a technique called naa yot. . They grew rice for local household consumption, not to sell it. Their business, on the contrary, was making salt, which they sold regionally, including in Cambodia. His recent study indicates that from 1000 BC until the 1700s there was a salt trade route from the Mun River basin to Cambodia. The method used to make salt in those days was not much different from the way people in Isaan used to several decades ago: they scraped the white powder on the surface of the soil called khi tha and boiled it. People were similarly self-sufficient in producing - and selling - their own iron, according to Srisakara. "We see that each community in Isaan in the old days could rely on themselves. Each community had its own barai and had its unique business that depended on the local environment," he says. Although one cannot turn the clock to the time before dams were built in Isaan, one can learn from these mistakes. What Isaan really needs are more forests, which people can take care of in the time-tested way, and make a livelihood from. Professor Nidhi Aiewsriwong agrees with Srisakara and said villagers have traditionally known not destroy the forests. It was the wealthy lumber businessmen working hand in hand with corrupt government officials and army generals who denuded the land of its forests and trees. "In the old days, every village had a don phi poo taa or natural source of water, which everybody knew needed to be protected. The small forest area adjacent to the don phi poo ta was respected and not used for housing or agriculture," he says. "In the old days, people in Isaan lived in harmony with the forest. There were people, forests and small ponds everywhere. Today, there are only big dams with large amounts of water. But there is no place for people to live." Nidhi points out the era of dam construction, which began in 1957, forced Isaannites to relocate in large numbers from land which was flooded by rising river waters. The disruption to Isaan society was further aggravated by legal and illegal logging by authorities and their mafioso associates. More than 30 percent of farmers in Thailand do not have their own plots of land, although at one time their families did. With the loss of traditional agricultural opportunities, many of them found work in illegal logging projects as they had to feed and clothe families, and have consequently been arrested. But the government has never arrested the government authorities or the project owners who typically are important politicians and army generals and who hired these people to work for them. It is time for the Thai government to formulate coherent policies on how to solve such problems, and help the people who are the victims of ill-conceived, so-called "development". Then rice will grow in the fields again, fish will swim in rivers, and Isaannites can again live in a society marked by fishing and agricultural opportunities, and respect for nature.