About 60 protesters, who had come to Bangkok from as far as Mae Hong Son and Ubon Ratchathani, gathered in front of the Siam Tower building where the World Bank’s Thailand office is located. The demonstrators submitted a statement denouncing the merits of hydropower dams as supposed ”symbols of development”.

Nanthachote Chairat of the Assembly of the Poor said the protest was timed to coincide with the International Symposium Water Resources and Renewable Energy Development in Asia, organised by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. T

he symposium, to be attended by international experts concerned with the development of dams for renewable energy schemes and other purposes in Asia, will run today and tomorrow at the Montien Riverside Hotel in Bangkok. The statement cited in particular the failure of the Pak Moon dam which was funded by the World Bank. It said the Ubon Ratchathani dam had disrupted the livelihoods of local people and the ecosystem of the Moon river.

”We, the victims of dams nationwide, are calling on the World Bank to stop issuing loans to build more dams. It must also support the rebuilding of communities and resources that have been affected by past projects as a way to make amends for their past mistakes,” said the statement. A series of dams are slated to be built along the Salween river, on the Thai-Burmese border.

Protester Tawatchai Amornfaichondaen, 35, said most villagers in his Mae Hong Son community have been kept in the dark about the schemes, or have been threatened by local officials not to speak out against them.