The Rasi Salai Dam, located just upstream from Pak Mun Dam on Thailand’s Mun River, has been a disaster since it was first proposed. The project was the first to be built of 13 dams planned to irrigate land in northeast Thailand as part of the Kong-Chi-Mun Water Diversion project. Originally slated as a five meter high inflatable rubber dam, the final product, completed in 1994, was a 17 meter high concrete dam with a large reservoir.

The project was supposed to irrigate about 5,500 hectares. However, Rasi Salai Dam is currently useless and likely to remain so. The reservoir sits on top of a huge salt dome creating water too salty for irrigation. Because of this design flaw, Thailand's Office of Environmental Policy and Planning has refused to give permission for the dam's irrigation canals to be built. Further, the defunct project has cost more than six times original estimates, even without the cost of construction of the associated canals.

While project benefits have not materialized, Rasi Salai Dam has had huge impacts on local villagers and the environment. More than 15,000 people lost farmland when the reservoir was filled, 60 percent of whom have not received compensation. The dam blocked fish migration routes and destroyed the largest freshwater swamp forest in the Mun River basin. The forest provided a source of food and traditional medicine for the villagers, fish habitat, flood control and water treatment.

For several years, affected people have rallied for the permanent decommissioning of Rasi Salai Dam. In August 1999, more than 1,850 people created a village in the reservoir area on the site of their old one and named it Mae Mun Man Yuen Village #2, the Long Lasting Mun River Village. They risked drowning in their quest for permanent opening of the dam gates.

In a victory for villagers, on July 6, 2000, Thailand's Science Minister agreed to open all seven sluice gates of Rasi Salai to let the river run free for at least two years for environmental recovery and to conduct studies to determine who was affected by the project. Villagers are now demanding that the gates be permanently opened.

All of the photos here feature the river ecosystem and villager’s livelihoods that will return to the Mun River after the Pak Mun and Rasi Salai Dam gates are opened.

Basic Information

• Basic information about Rasi Salai dam   April 20,1999
• Social Impacts of the Rasi Salai Dam, Thailand: Loss of Livelihood Security and Social Conflict Submission for The World Commission on Dams Public Hearing
• Village of the dammed    By Southeast Asia Rivers Network  January 11, 2000

News

• Clever lies destroyed our lives  Bangkok Post, Aug 6, 2000
• Protesters moving out of dam site  The Nation, July 09, 2000
• Rasi Salai dam : Sluice gates to open for two year  Bangkok Post, July 07, 2000 
• Minister orders opening of Rasi Salai dam gates   The Nation, July 07, 2000
• Protests galore as groups press their demands   The Nation, May 31, 2000
• Ministry for Rasi Salai Dam hearing   The Nation, May 24, 2000
• Protesters at risk from drowning   Bangkok Post, September 10, 1999
• PM urged to address woes of villagers : Dam project Northeasterners,  Bangkok Post, November 5, 1999 
• 800 villagers stage protest against dam,  The Nation, March 13, 2000
• Settlement in sight,  Bangkok Post, February 11, 2000

Photo Gallery

• Rasi Photo Gallery 1  Protest at being inundated Mae Moon Meun Yeun village 2
• Rasi Photo Gallery 2  Inundated Mae Moon Meun Yeun village 2
• Rasi Photo Gallery 3  Activities in Mae Moon Meun Yeun village 2

More about Rasi Salai Dam in Thai >>