The wetlands were once a fertile source for food and cultural sustenance.
The Rasi Salai dam was a part of the Khong-Chi-Mun project, a series of 13 planned large-scale dams for the Chi, Mun, and Mekong Rivers.
The project aimed to improve irrigation, prevent floods, and create jobs. It failed. Instead, the dam destroyed natural resources and biodiversity, causing floods, food insecurity, soil and water contamination, and deforestation. Over 17,000 villagers were impacted by land rights issues ranging from unemployment to displacement.
In 1997, community members protested the dam’s construction by stealing stones from the dam’s base and orchestrating a mass 25,000 person protest in Bangkok.
The power of the people won 505 million baht to 5,300 families in compensation. In 2019, Thailand’s military government earmarked an additional 600 million baht. However, most settlements have excluded people who worked informally on the land or could not produce specific paperwork. It also did not address discrepancies in how much land was lost.
Starting in 2001, Rasi Salai villagers welcomed “Thai Baan” community based research when local dam-affected men and women served as citizen scientists to collect data on changes to the river.
The Wetlands Center is a departure from large scale marches in Bangkok; These more subtle forms of organizing draw researchers, activists, and government stakeholders to the dam site, subverting the centralized government regime.
So the fight continues… with new strategies to spread their story.
Artwork by Molly Marie Gurney