Thailand - Controversial Thailand dam to be ready by 2016

The Mae Wong Dam project in Nakhon Sawan, western Thailand will be completed in 2016, Agriculture minister Theera Wongsamut told a House meeting yesterday.

When Nakhon Sawan MP Prasart Tanprasert asked about the dam's budget, as the annual budget for 2013 didn't mention it, Theera answered on the prime minister's behalf.

Saying Nakhon Sawan residents had waited for the dam for over 30 years, he said the project, requiring a 13.28-billion baht (US$422 million) budget, was included in the 5th national economic and social development plan and that an environmental impact assessment had been done.

Theera said the dam's budget didn't appear in the 2013 budget act because it was included in the loan spending plan approved by royal decree that authorised the Finance Ministry to formulate a water-management system.

He said the project would use 9 billion baht ($286 million) from the spending plan, with the rest coming from the usual budgets such as the 3-billion baht ($95 million) construction budget and the 600 million baht ($19 million) budget for solving environmental problems.

Prasart said he wanted to know if the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry was notified that the dam was located in a national park, and whether evacuation was necessary because the dam construction area covered Mae Re sub-district's villages.

Theera said the Royal Irrigation Department first asked to use the location in May 2007. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation didn't object, so the National Environment Board was assigned to consider it. As for the people living downstream from the dam, he reported that they wouldn't be affected, so there was no need for evacuation.

Asked when the dam would be complete, Theera said the Cabinet had approved it in principle and set an eight-year time frame, the first year of which would be spent on preparing engineering details.

He said the water irrigation system's design was currently under inspection. After the National Environment Board approved the dam project and considered the environmental impact assessment report in July, the project would begin. It should be complete by 2016, he said.

On Monday, the Agriculture Ministry would host a public forum at Lat Yao Wittayakhom School in Nakhon Sawan's Lat Yao district to hear about environmental and health impacts.

Environmental academic Hannarong Yaowalert would observe the forum and raise questions, as some facts remained hazy, such as the loss of forestland. According to one report, 7,000-8,000 rai would be lost, while another report put the loss at 10,000-13,000 rai.

Kanittha Thepjorn

The Nation

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