The informal release of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) report on Thailand’s Pak Moon multi-purpose hydro plant has antagonised supporters of the project, instead of establishing common ground on the issues involved.
Responding to the report’s findings, senior officials from the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) said the report was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘simply biased’. The Pak Moon study team was accused of using different parameters than EGAT in its assessment of the project and of failing to give proper weight to information supplied by EGAT.
WCD spokesman James Workman said the report had been peer reviewed and that comments had been solicited from EGAT. ‘We stand by this report,’ Workman told local media in Bangkok. ‘We emphasise that all case studies are peer reviewed and that they are inputs to, rather than outputs from the commission. Our only output is the final report, and that should be, by design, of constructive use both by EGAT and any protesters.’ The WCD report will be formally released in London, UK, on 16 November and in Bangkok, Thailand, on 24 November 2000.