ABSTRACT
Nearly all large-scale water infrastructure projects in Thailand are riddled with controversy and contention over their social and environmental impacts. Disputes and standoffs typically focus on the adequacy, comprehensiveness, and hence reliability of their pre-construction assessments, and on the inclusiveness of local perspectives on their anticipated benefits, costs, and social consequences. To tackle water governance challenges, considerable Thai governmental and societal efforts have been devoted to forming and popularising participatory approaches to project evaluation and impact assessment. This chapter uses the encouraging story of the Hua Na (Weir) Irrigation scheme in the Northeast region of Thailand to uncover how the “People’s Impact Assessment” contributes to the democratisation of water resource management. The case study aims to illustrate that attaching the utmost importance to setting proper spatial scales, adopting interdisciplinary approaches, seeking and incorporating local knowledge, and insisting on participatory and responsive processes does not slow down hydro project planning and implementation. The “People’s Impact Assessment” is instead a useful tool for mitigating the negative environmental and disruptive social effects of water infrastructure projects, and should be encouraged in all hydro development schemes on the Mekong River.
