The Assembly of the Poor announced that a meeting between representatives of the villagers and state agencies, with the provincial governor as chair, had agreed to start releasing water from the Pak Mun Dam beginning on July 26, 2007. By decreasing the water level in the reservoir by 50 cm a day, the villagers anticipated all 8 sluice gates could be fully lifted in the next 15 days or by August 9.

However, Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Governor Suthi Makboon was never clear about the date when the gates would be fully opened, although in previous years once the date for starting the release of water was determined, the date of full opening could be calculated. In 2006, for example, the Resources and Communities Livelihoods Development panel agreed to have EGAT start releasing water from May 1, 2006, and the gates were fully opened on May 9 as scheduled, said the AOP.

The Cabinet of Gen Surayud Chulanont resolved on June 12, 2007 to keep the water level of the Pak Mun reservoir at 106- 108 meters above mean sea level, claiming this would benefit over 20,000 villagers who use the water for irrigation. This decision has the effect of keeping the gates closed all the time, and reverses the Cabinet resolution of the previous administration, which opted for opening the gates for 4 months a year.

The June 12 decision was reportedly made under the influence of the Council for National Security, whose personnel claimed to have conducted a poll in the province and found that the majority wanted the gates closed.

On July 24, about 150 villagers asked Phosi subdistrict head Wichian Saiyuen to show the list of 20,000 villagers who were claimed to have supported the closure. This list was submitted to Gen Surin Pikunthong of the Centre for Poverty Eradication under the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy, and forwarded to the Cabinet. Wichian did not come out to meet the villagers until District Chief Decha Wongtrakun arrived and called Wichian out. Wichian eventually said that he had submitted the list to Gen Surin on April 5, but the list contained only 10,000 names. And he was in contact with other agencies to reveal the list as demanded by the villagers.

Sawaeng Laithong of Nong Pok village said that Wichian's behaviour showed that there was no transparency in how the names were collected. People in the subdistrict were never aware that signatures were being collected.

Finally, it was concluded that the district would send an official letter to the governor to consider revealing the list of names.

Now village heads are collecting more signatures to support the closure of the dam gates. AOP said that was a wrong tactic that would not solve, but rather aggravate the problem.