Villager Committee for the Rehabilitation
of Life and Communities of the Mun River Basin
57 Moo 12 T. Khongjeam, Khongjiam District, Ubon Ratchathani Province
4 May 2004
Topic: A Call to End Support of Dam-building Activities
To: The President of the World Bank
The Pak Mun Dam is an important example that reflects the failure of
development projects that the World Bank has supported. The Pak Mun Dam
is not the only dam that has caused negative impacts and created loss.
There are a great many other examples of people throughout the world that
have encountered the same fate as this. Dams have brought countless self-sufficient
communities all over the world to ruin and disintegration. They have created
great suffering and widespread poverty. For great numbers of people, the
quality of life has rapidly and drastically decreased. But the managers
of the World Bank have never learned these lessons and they still continue
lending support to dam construction in a multitude of countries.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the World Banks establishment.
It also marks sixty years of people from around the world becoming subject
to a common fate and great suffering owing to the financial support for
large-scale projects. It is because of our experience over the entirety
of the 14 years since the dam was built that we, the villagers of Pak
Mun, make this appeal to the World Bank, so that the same fate we have
suffered does not befall any others again in the world.
Therefore, we call on the World Bank to halt its financial support for
the building of dams or any other development projects. We further call
on the World Bank to accept responsibility for the great losses it has
caused to others, to nature, and to ecosystems though concrete actions,
such as providing financial support for the rehabilitation of ecosystems,
and the revitalization of families and the way of life of those damaged
due to projects the World Bank has supported.
Respectfully yours,
(Mrs. Lamduan Serathong) (Mr. Sonkiat Phonphai)
Villager Committee for the
Rehabilitation of Life and Communities
of the Mun River Basin |
