Two small dams will cause less damage: experts
If two smaller dams were built in the Yom River basin in the North in place of the long-delayed Kaeng Sua Ten Dam, the environmental damage and the land expropriation would be a lot less, a source from the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) said yesterday.
If smaller dams were built they would require the expropriation of around 30,000 rai of farmland and forests instead of the 41,570 rai needed for Kaeng Sua Ten Dam alone, the source said.
In addition to the two smaller dams, 57 reservoirs could be built to provide sufficient water for consumption and farming for 1.7 million people living in the Yom River basin, which covers mainly Phrae and other provinces in the lower North.
The source was citing a proposal submitted by an advisory company to the RID.
Harnnarong Yaolert, chairman of the Search Results Global Water Partnership of Thailand, criticised the Kaeng Sua Ten Dam project saying that it had been used by politicians as being the only effective tool to minimise drought.
He said Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart was one of these politicians, who declared that the Kaeng Sua Ten Dam was needed after he took part in an aerial inspection trip in Phrae province during which he saw dried up teak trees.
"Teak trees discard old leaves to produce new ones. They are not drying up and dying as understood by Sanan," he added.
Harnnarong said the Kaeng Sua Ten Dam would need more than 40,000 rai of fertile forestland in the Mae Yom national park.
"In addition to the fertile forests, an additional 100-square-kilometres of forest and 8,000 rai of farmland will be lost to make way for the Kaeng Sua Ten Dam," he added.