BANGKOK: In Northern Thailand, villager networks and NGOs are protesting and voicing their opposition to 7 power projects in the area. They are citing pollution as a main reason for their calls for the projects to be canceled. Representatives of the northern Thai villagers' networks and NGOs, including from Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai have expressed concerns over the construction of Hatgyi Dam in Myanmar, and for using their neighborhoods as a passage to transport lignite from a mine in Myanmar to the Thai North. Montree ChantaWong, a spokesperson from a northern Thai NGO, said that the 7 power projects planned by Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) include one in which power will be purchased from dams to be built in Myanmar and Laos and ones where new power plants will be constructed. The groups have proposed alternative power plans to the relevant authorities which they claim could provide sufficient power supply in northern Thai for the next 18 years. The groups also called on the government to address problems concerning power supply systems in Thailand and to take the communities' needs into consideration in order to help cut power production and costs.
