Wednesday, 3 Dec 2003

RASI SALAI, Thailand

The community wake-up call was at 5:30 this morning. The bamboo rhythms are much gentler than my alarm clock at home, but it didn’t make it any easier for me to roll out of my cocoon inside the mosquito net and bamboo-and-rice-thatch hut.

The vans left at 7 a.m. for a field trip to visit the Pak Mun Dam. I was supposed to be on one of those vans, but late last night I swapped with Emilie Lewis, an intern at the South East Asia Rivers Network (SEARIN) who was recruited to help provide Spanish translation for the Colombian, Guatemalan, Mexican, and Spanish contingents of the group.

I’ll now be going on the Rasi Salai field trip, which leaves later and returns five hours earlier than the Pak Mun trip. After two full days at the Rivers for Life meeting, I’m secretly pleased about the swap, if only because it means I will have time for a shower this evening before the Pak Mun trip returns.

The Pak Mun field trip will visit the confluence of the Mun and Mekong rivers and meet with the villagers at the Pak Mun Dam reservoir and protest village, many of whom have put their lives on the line in the fight to have their river restored.

The highly controversial Pak Mun Dam was completed in 1994. More than 20,000 people have been affected by drastic reductions in fish populations and other changes to their livelihoods.

In a victory for the villagers, the Thai government agreed to open the dam gates for a year to conduct studies on fisheries, social impacts, and electricity supply in June 2001. The villagers conducted their own research and found that 152 species of fish had returned to the river after the gates were opened. In November 2002, however, the Thai government decided to close the gates for eight months each year, so the villagers’ struggle continues.

I was visiting Thailand last year when Pak Mun Dam protesters made the news. Their protest village, Long-Lasting Mun River Village, had been set on fire while many of its residents were gone, protesting in Bangkok. Thai authorities insisted the protesters set fire to their own village to call attention to their cause.

I’ve wanted to visit the site of the ongoing Pak Mun Dam struggle for more than a year and was really looking forward to the trip, but I’ve also gotten rather chummy with some of the Rasi Salai villagers who insisted I come to see their beautiful Mun river and the gates of the dam they fought to open. And drink rice wine.

With characteristic Thai hospitality, our hosts have been cooking three meals and two snacks per day for 300 people, according to finicky diet specifications — spicy, not spicy, vegetarian, vegan — all the while refusing any compensation for their efforts. All they have asked in return is that we come, listen to their story, and celebrate their victory.

The vans for Rasi Salai are leaving, so I’m off …