Ministry urged to not okay Mae Wong Dam assessment
An environmental watchdog agency is calling on the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to hold off on approving Mae Wong Dam's environmental and health impact assessment (EHIA) report because it does not include information about how the project w
“The EHIA does not include any clear details on how the wildlife and plants in Nakhon Sawan province would be affected by the construction of the dam,” Hannarong Yaowalert, president of the Foundation for Integrated Water Management, said yesterday.
Speaking at the “Mae Wong Dam Project cannot Solve Flooding” seminar held at Rangsit University, he said that the assessment conducted by the Royal Irrigation Department did not include a relocation plan for the Mae Wong National Park’s Mae Rewa Forest Protection Unit, which will be affected by the dam.
Additionally, the report did not provide any details about how people living in the area would be compensated and how much land would be taken from them for the dam construction.
“As per the report, we only know that just over 14,000 rai of land will be affected, but it does not mention where this area will be and how much money the landowners will get in compensation,” Hannarong said.
He said that he will write to the panel of water experts under the National Resources and Environment Ministry next week to seek clarification.
According to the EHIA report, Mae Wong Dam will only retain about 258 million cubic metres of water and irrigate about 291,000 rai of land, though Hannarong insists that this amount of water is only enough to irrigate 100,000 rai.
