Affected People

In northeastern Thailand's Isaan region, close to the border with Laos, lies the Sirindhorn Dam, which is operated by Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). While the dam itself is relatively small - only 42m high with an installed capacity of just 36 MW - the area of water impounded in the reservoir is vast, covering 280 km2. At the time it was constructed over four decades ago, this project required the resettlement of 1,365 households. The reservoir flooded ten schools and eight temples, and 6,880 ha of farmland was permanently lost. The affected families from dozens of smal

On 7 February 2013, thousands of villagers impacted by the Rasi Salai Dam on the Mun River in Northeast Thailand gathered near the dam site to demand that the Thai government provide compensation for both lost land and income. These claims date back to the time the dam was built in the mid-1990s. They attest that the dam reservoir flooded productive land they used for both agriculture and wetlands-based livelihoods, and destroyed the seasonally-flooded forest (known locally as paa boong paa thaam). In past years, this ecologically important forest covered much of the Mun River’s floodplain,

The World Bank proposes to increase funding for mega-dams as part of the upcoming negotiations about the IDA fund for the poorest countries. Such an approach would undermine the Bank's purported goals of inclusive growth, gender equality, and climate resilience.