The project comes at a high cost for a relatively small volume of the water. The current combined cost of the planned diversions from the Salween basin is around 110 billion baht in order to harness around 2 billion cubic metres of water annually into the Chao Phraya basin.
Over the past few months, the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) and the House Committee on the Review of Integrated River Basin Management have been heavily promoting inter-basin water diversion. The planned projects will divert water across Thailand from the North to the South, incorporating international river basins, including the Mekong and Salween. The stated aim is to harness the water supply in these transboundary rivers to address "water shortages" in Thailand.
The RID's documents claim that the Yuam Diversion Project will affect only 23 individuals, with one losing family farmland. However, the evidence from our trip to this area proves otherwise.
"I have been living in this home, this forest for more than four decades. No one has come to look after me and my family. Now, they are going to dam the Yuam River. They talk about all the positives of this project. I myself have no Thai ID card, even though I have been living here a long time." said Mai Ong with no last name, 67, a stateless villager from Tha Rua village in Mae Hong Son's Sob Moei district. "If this project really benefits a lot of people as they claim, personally, I am fine with having my house inundated", he adds sardonically. Mai Ong lives about 10 kilometres from the potential site of the Yuam River dam. The story is the same for other local people. Yet, you'd be hard-pressed to find one that has been counted among the affected population.
Any such trade-off is hardly free. Plans for massive hydropower dams on the Salween River in Myanmar, to be developed and financed by Thai and Chinese firms, have a long history of opposition due to their extensive impacts on the river system -- one of Asia's last remaining free-flowing rivers -- and the livelihoods and cultures of local people. This history is closely intertwined with one of protracted armed conflict between the Myanmar army and ethnic armed groups in areas where dams are proposed in Shan, Karenni and Karen states.
Despite a national ceasefire, armed clashes continue to break out, in some cases exacerbated by planned dams. Local people face looming threats -- from major impacts if the dams are built, but also as a result of speaking out about harm to their communities. Last week Saw Tha Poe, an environmental activist from Karen Rivers Watch, was targeted for arrest and charged with statements critical of the state. Saw Tha Poe has long worked to raise awareness of the risks posed by destructive developments, including hydropower dams, on his community along the Salween River.
While people in the Salween basin know the true cost of these vast infrastructure projects -- they also know the value of their river. Today, on March 14, International Day of Action for Rivers, youth from Muesaw's village will gather together with people throughout the Salween basin in Thailand and Myanmar, in order to celebrate and campaign to protect the Salween and ensure it continues flowing freely across borders -- now and into the future.
