Communities in Thai North rally against mega power projects

THAILAND, August 16 (TNA) - Villagers' networks and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in several areas in the Thai North have voiced their strong opposition to seven power mega projects for feared impacts on their normal ways of life, namely pollution. Representatives of the northern Thai villagers' networks and NGOs, including those from Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, jointly aired the concerns over the seven power mega projects on Thursday, including the construction of Hatgyi Dam in Myanmar and the use of their neighbourhoods as a passage of lignite transported from a mine in Myanmar to any targeted destination in the Thai North. Montree ChantaWong, a representative of a northern Thai NGO, said that the seven power mega projects, planned by Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), include the ones under which power is to be purchased from dams to be newly-built in neighbouring Myanmar and Laos and the ones under which new power plants are to be constructed and at least a new lignite mine is to be run without sufficient information provided to local communities believed to be affected by the projects. The protest groups, meanwhile, proposed their alternative power plans to authorities concerned, claiming that they were worked out by academics and could provide sufficient power supply to the northern Thai areas for the next 18 years with no need to run the EGAT's newly-planned mega power projects. The groups called on the government to concretely address problems related to the overall power supply systems in Thailand, with communities' rights to be taken into consideration, and to thoroughly study their proposed alternative plans, which could help reduce power production and costs for the Thai North. (TNA)