OPINION

Damming Isan's last free-flowing river for cash

News, David JH Blake, Published on 25/07/2019

» Something distinctly rotten is afoot along the northern periphery of Isan. The Songkhram River, the last river with a slight semblance of natural flow and connectivity with the Mekong River, is threatened by one of the least transparent bureaucracies, the Royal Irrigation Department (RID), and a handful of wealthy private interests. That is because the RID's plan to dam the river in Nakhon Phanom, which has been stalled, now looks like it might materialise.