Most dams are 'a long way off'

 

Despite a court order by the Central Administrative Court last week for the RID to conduct public hearings and prepare EIA reports on the 18 dams listed under the water-management scheme, only 5 of the 18 dams are close to being ready for contractors to move in.

The majority of dam projects under the scheme do not follow the “blueprint” for the government’s flood-management irrigation plans, Somkiat Prajamwong, director of RID’s Project Management Office, told The Nation in an exclusive interview.

The five dam projects are the Bt470-million Lampang Mae On reservoir, which can retain 19 million cubic metres of water; the Bt445-million Huay Tha Phon reservoir in Phetchabun, with a capacity of 12.82 million cubic metres; Uttaradit’s Bt575-million Huay Phang-Nga reservoir, with a capacity of 11.33 million cubic metres; the Bt13-billion Mea Wong dam in Nakhonsawan with 258 million cubic metres; and the Bt5.5-billion Wang Chom Phu dam in Pitsanulok, with 87 million cubic metres. 

However, an Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) still needed to be carried out on Mae On, Huay Tha Phon, and Huay Phang-Nga dams, Somkiat said. No IEE was needed for Huay Phang-Nga reservoir, as it was only a small-scale dam, he added.

For the remaining two dams – Mae Wong and Wang Chum Phu – both were still waiting for the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) to complete its conclusions on the findings assessing the two dams’ environmental impact. 

“ Plans to construct Mae Wong and Wang Chum Phu dams are now also facing strong resistance from local communities so we need to review the environmental impact of these projects again,” said Somkiat said. 

He added that he was concerned about the construction of Mae Wong and the Lower and Upper Yom dams as strong resistance meant they may not be completed within the 5-year deadline, as stipulated by the government’s mega water-management scheme. 

When asked about progress on the study of the Lower and Upper Yom dams, Somkiat said his agency was still unsure whether it could proceed, as Panya Consultants – the company hired to assess the impact of the two dams – had been barred by villagers from returning to the area. He said one option being considered was to let the contractor carry out its own environmental impact assessment (EIA). 

Another problems was that there were no “blueprints” under the government’s ambitious mega water-management scheme for distributing water through canals to irrigate farmland in areas surround the dams. 

“The government’s terms of reference for the water-management scheme have only required the contractor to build the dam – not the irrigation system. Currently, there is no system of irrigation planned that would enable the RID to set up an effective water- and flood-management system,” Somkiat said.