The Honorable Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra
Prime Minister of Thailand
Government House
Bangkok, Thailand

Dear Mr. Thaksin

First, may we extend our congratulations to you on your recent election as Prime Minister of Thailand. We, the undersigned 96 international organizations from 23 countries, welcome your new government with great optimism. We are particularly pleased to see your government’s commitment to negotiating with Assembly of the Poor. The agreement that you made with the Assembly of the Poor last month, including the commitment to open the gates of the Pak Mun Dam for 4 months this rainy season, was greeted with much enthusiasm from those of us around the world who have been monitoring the situation with great interest.

 

We are writing to express our support for your decision to open the gates of the Pak Mun Dam this month. The Pak Mun Dam has been a matter of international concern since the project was first proposed in the early 1990s. Up until the World Bank approved its loan for the project in 1994, many of the undersigned organizations worked with the villagers affected by Pak Mun Dam to oppose World Bank funding. Since then, we have worked to support the villager’s demands for compensation, and now for permanent opening of the dam’s gates.

Your government has taken a bold step by agreeing to open the dam’s gates and conduct studies into fisheries and social impacts. The international community is behind you. We support the villagers’ demands for permanent opening of the Pak Mun Dam gates.

The commitment of your government to open the gates at Pak Mun is in accord with international trends. In the United States, the number of dams being removed each year now exceeds the number of new dams being constructed. In the past decade, 177 dams have been removed in the United States, resulting in restoration of fisheries and other ecological functions destroyed by dams. One year after the Edwards Dam was removed in 1999, migratory fish returned in abundance to previously impounded parts of theKennebec River in Maine. Fish diversity in Wisconsin’s Baraboo River more than doubled, from 11 to 24 species, just 18 months after removal of a dam on that river. These examples demonstrate that restoration of fisheries will occur after a dam is removed.

The claim by EGAT and some of its supporters that opening the dam gates would destroy the reservoir fisheries is not corroborated by recent independent research. The World Commission on Dams, an independent international agency, studied the Pak Mun Dam as one of its seven detailed studies of existing dams. The WCD released its final study on the Pak Mun Dam in August 2000. The WCD found that the dam has failed to meet its projected benefits and has had substantial impacts on fisheries. Economically, Pak Mun Dam is not performing well. Researchers found that the dam, which is supposed to generate 136 megawatts of electricity, barely generates 20 megawatts in high-demand months of April and May. This seriously undermines the economic viability of the project.

The WCD estimated that the actual fish catch in the reservoir and upstream is 60-80 percent less than in the pre-dam era, resulting in an economic loss to villagers of about US$1.4 million per annum. The WCD recorded that 169 out of 265 species of fish in the Mun River were affected by the construction of the dam. Of these, 56 species have completely disappeared. According to the study, “it is now clear that the fish ladder is not accommodating seasonal fish migration from the Mekong River into the Mun/Chi watershed.”

The WCD concluded, “if all the benefits and costs were adequately assessed, it is unlikely that the project would have been built in the current context.”

Opening the dam’s gates permanently to restore the river is technically and economically feasible. Currently, Thailand has an excess generating capacity of around 55%. It is likely to remain this high for the next two years. The loss of a small amount of power from Pak Mun would make no discernible difference to Thailand’s energy supply and would make a huge difference to the lives of the Isan people who formerly depended on the Mun River’s fisheries for their livelihood.

Mr. Thaksin, we support your decision to do what is right for the people affected by Pak Mun dam and for the Mun River. We thank you for your commitment to this important decision. We look forward to the day when the Mun River is flowing freely and villagers’ livelihoods have been restored to their former level.

Respectfully yours,

Aviva Imhof
Director, Southeast Asia Program
International Rivers Network, USA

On behalf of the following 95 organizations from 23 countries:

Argentina
Dra. Anna Petra Roge de Marzolini Abogada, Asociacion Ambientalista EcoLaPaz

Australia
Melanie Gillbank AID/WATCH

Lee Tan Australian Conservation Foundation

Lynette J. Dumble Global Sisterhood Network

Bangladesh
Saleem Samad Like-Minded Environmental Activists Group, Bangladesh

Hossain Shahriar Environmental & Social Development Organisation, Bangladesh

Harun-ur-Rashid Community Development Library, Bangladesh

Hamidul Huq Unnayan Shohojogi Team, Bangladesh

Majibul Haque Dulu Jamuna Char Development Project, Bangladesh

Syed Tamjidur Rahman Changemakers, Bangladesh

Shahidul Haque SARPV, Bangladesh

Cambodia
Kong Socheat Church World Service (Kompong Thom Project)

Vann Piseth Culture and Environment Preservation Association (CEPA)

Emily Polack Non Timber Forest Products Project

Canada
Daniel LeBlanc Petitcodiac Riverkeeper, New Brunswick

Grainne Ryder Probe International

Brewster Kneen, Publisher, The Ram’s Horn

Germany
Heffa Schuecking Urgewald

Hong Kong
Kevin Li Globalization Monitor

India
Ashish Fernandes Sanctuary Asia

Himanshu Thakkar South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, New Delhi

Indonesia
Riduan A. Munthei Federation of Indonesian Peasant Union (FSPI)

Henry Saragih Regional Coordinator South East and East Asia La Via Campesina

Italy
Rose Fernando Franciscans

Japan
Nakako WADA and Takashi KITAMURA ALIVE (All Life In a Viable Environment)

Shigeko Ago Amnesty International,Japan

SATOSHI KOBAYASHI Anglican-Episcopal St. Stephen’s Church

Kaji Etsuko and Akiyama Nobuko ARA-Japan

Shigeo Watanabe A SEED JAPAN

Yoko Nishida Citizens for Saving the Kawabe

Futami Kouichi Citizens for Saving the Kuma River

DOI, Toshiyuki Fukuoka NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank

Hideaki Kurakawa Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)

Sonoko Kawakami Japan NGO Network on Indonesia (JANNI)

Junko Okura and Enri Mac Aodha Jubilee Kyushu on World Debt and Poverty

Akio Kawamura Lecturer, Kobe College (Hyogo, Japan)

Professor K. Hosokawa Dept of Environmental and Social Studies Kyoto Seika University

SUMIDA,Nozomi Kyoto University Unicef Club

Satoru Matsumoto Mekong Watch Japan

Kotorii Shinsuke Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies

Kanda Hiroshi ODA Reform Network/ APEC Monitor NGO Network

Heather Souter Rivers!Japan

NAMURA Takayuki Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Science The University of Tokyo

YASOSHIMA, Chika Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies WASEDA UNIVERSITY

Miki Furuya WWF Japan

Shunsuke Rai Yokohama National University

Malaysia
S.M Mohamed Idris President, Consumers’ Association of Penang

Meenakshi Raman Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Sam Hui and Dr. Rosli Omar Save Our Sungai Selangor (SOS Selangor)

S.Arutchelvan Secretary General, Socialist Party Of Malaysia

Mr Tan Jo Hann South East Asia Popular Communications Programme

Kua Kia Soong Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram)

Nepal Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’ Nepal Water and Energy Consumers’ Federation, Kathmandu

Neeru Shrestha International Institute for Human Rights, Environment and Development (INHURED International), Kathmandu

Suresh Kumar Thapa National Concerns Society, Kathmandu

Netherlands
Johan Frijns, International Financial Institutions Program Friends of the Earth International

Norway
Tonje Folkestad FIVAS (Association for International Water and Forest Studies)

Pakistan
Aly Ercelawn and Muhammad Nauman creed alliance

Wagha DAMAAN

Naeem Iqbal Sungi Development Foundation

Philippines
Joan Carling Cordillera Peoples Alliance

Deogracias P. Espiritu Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY) (National Alliance of Urban Poor Associations)

South Africa
Liane Greeff Water Justice Programme Manager Environmental Monitoring Group

Spain
Pedro Brufao AEMS-RIOS CON VIDA (Living Rivers)

Manuel Sanchez Unidad Caza y Pesca de Zaragoza (Government Fish and Game Agency)

Thailand
KUZE Nobutaka Association of Japanese Students in Thailand.

FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN MOO BAAN DEK (Children’s Village School)inKanchanaburi

Dr Rasmi Shoocongdej Silpakorn University

Pisit Charnsnoh and Jim Enright YADFON ASSOCIATION

United Kingdom
Catherine Muller, Katherine Vokes, Alan Carr, Claire Baxter, Paul Gibbs, David Trelawney Cornerstone Resource Centre, Leeds

Peter Burt Reading International Solidarity Centre

Prof. David Simon Dept. of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London

Chris Woodford UK Rivers Network

United States
Len Beyea Alliance for Democracy – Monterey Bay Chapter

Diana Bohn Alliance for Global Justice

Neil Watkins Center for Economic Justice.

Carol Hayman Committee for Solidarity with Mexico and Chiapas, Austin, Texas

Dan Silver Endangered Habitats League

Christopher Tyler ENGAGE USA

Bruce Rich Director, International Program Environmental Defense

Soren Ambrose 50 Years Is Enough Network, Washington DC

Nadananda Friends of the Eel River

Manoj Saranathan Friends of River Narmada

Todd Tucker George Washington University Action Coalition

Paula Palmer Global Response

Richard Weigel Hawai’i Sustainable Lifestyle Network

Allison Vogt Institute for Fisheries Resources Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, San Francisco, CA

Rev. Deacon Arthur C. Donart Justice & Peace Commission, Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace Catholic Parish, Iowa

Barbara Warner Marion County Water Watch

David Nelson Northeast Chapter of the Connecticut Green Party

Stephen Donnelly Pascommuck Conservation Trust, Massachusetts

Noah Madlin Rainforest Action Group for Indigenous Peoples

Steve M. Harrison South Central Indiana Jobs with Justice and South Central Indiana White River Central Labor Council

Barbara Garson Author: Money Makes the World Go Around: One Investor Tracks her Cash Through the Global Economy fro Brooklyn to Bangkok and Back

Uruguay
Teresa Perez World Rainforest Movement – International Secretariat