Residents of Mae Soi, Chom Thong district, Chiang Mai, are opposed to a Provincial Irrigation Office plan to build a weir across the Ping River, for fear of losing their homes and livelihoods as a result of the weir.

According to the Chiang Mai Provincial Irrigation Office, the project developer, the weir is supposed to ease water shortage problems in the Upper Ping River.  The budget under the government’s Strong Thailand (Thai Khem Kaeng) scheme amounts to 965.974 million baht, including 850.24 million baht for construction of the weir, embankment and facilities, 48.48 million baht as compensation for land and assets, and 67.25 million baht for mitigation of environmental impacts.

The project claims to provide water for an area of about 80,000 rai (32,000 acres) in Mae Soi and Ban Pae Subdistricts of Chom Thong District and Nong Pla Sawai Subdistrict, Ban Hong District, Lamphun Province.

However, local people at Mae Soi where weir will be built said that the project was imposed on them without their consent, and they had been inadequately informed by the authorities.

Early this year, after they heard about the project, one of them made a phone call to the Irrigation Office to ask about it.  An engineer in charge of the project told them that this was a Royal Project, claiming that some villagers had petitioned HM the Queen and the project had already been approved by local communities.

But how come the local people had hardly been aware about it, they puzzled.

‘That made villagers dare not speak, as it was claimed to be a Royal Project,’ one villager said.

They found from project documents that the authorities had obtained ‘consent’ by having local leaders raise their hands in meetings.  Some people in nearby villages told them that the authorities had had them sign papers, and only afterwards did they know that they had signed to support the project.  

In March, Suwit Namthep, representing the villagers, submitted a petition against the project to the Mae Soi Tambon Administrative Organization and Chom Thong District Chief.

Later, officials from the Irrigation Office came to meet the villagers.  According to the villagers, while the officials spoke only about the good points of the project, one of them said that if Ban Mae Soi had to be submerged, that would be a sacrifice of Ban Mae Soi.

In early November, a group of villagers from Mae Soi went on a study trip to visit local people who had been affected by similar projects, including Rasi Salai and Hua Na dams in Sri Sa Ket in the Northeast.

Wenika Khamyong

Wenika Khamyong, who was on the trip, said that she was shocked when she saw with her own eyes the inundated farmland and homes of people there.

She said that the weir project would submerge many villages near the Ping River.

As is always the case with development projects, this project has resulted in rifts among local people, especially between dissenting villagers and local leaders who lean on the side of the authorities.

Some months ago, local leaders sought to collect villagers’ signatures to support the project, pressuring those who were opposed by saying that they would be excluded from public services such as funeral funds and pumped water supply [for agriculture], said one villager.

Hannarong Yaowalert, member of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council, said that the villagers had been provided with too little information regarding the impacts of the project.  He was concerned that the embankments would block the flow of water from both sides of the river, causing floods.

And villagers who catch fish in the river would find it difficult to continue to do so as the water would be too deep, he said. 

Hannarong Yaowalert