|
Impacts
of the Yali Falls Dam on Cambodia |
Index
CD
indicates an article in The Cambodia Daily, not available in electronic form.
PPPost ($) indicates the article is available online to subscribers
Dam
Water Damages Farms; CD, 04mar00
3 Said Dead in Dam Accident; CD, 11Mar00
Leaders Vietnam-Bound To Discuss Flooding; CD, 16Mar00
Viet
dam full of lethal surprises; Saroeun & Stormer, PPPost, 17Mar00
Cambodia
ignored in dam environmental study; Saroeun & Stormer, PPPost, 17Mar00
Vietnam Asked To Open Dam Slowly; CD, 21Mar00
Viets
say sorry for Se San flow; Saroeun, PPPost ($), 28Apr00
Downstream
Impacts of the Yali Falls Dam; Fisheries Office & NTFP, 29May00
Vietnamese [Yali Falls] Dam Unleashes
Flood of Fears; CD, 06Jun00
Huge
Viet dam devastates Se San valley and its people; PPPost, 09Jun00
Mekong Basin Dams Claim Lives,
Cause Poverty, Bank Warned; ENS, 27Jun00
Phnom
Penh Post, March 17 - 30, 2000
Viet
dam full of lethal surprises
By Bou Saroeun and Carsten Stormer
At
least five Cambodians have been killed, crops destroyed and fishing boats and
equipment lost after a Vietnamese power station released water into the Se San
river causing sudden surges in the volume and current downstream in Ratanakiri.
According
to the environmental impact assessment (see separate story, page 10), the dam
has been built and will be put into full-time operation with no consideration to
the effect it will have on Cambodia, despite its run-off being channeled into
the Se San which eventually feeds into the Mekong near Stung Treng.
The
Government and NGOs have confirmed that the water spillage from the dam has
caused rapid and drastic changes in the water levels of the Se San river since
December.
In
the worst incident so far, three teenage girls were killed when the boat they
were in was caught up in a sudden surge of water and strong currents about a
month ago.
Dr.
Yang Saing Koma, Executive Director of the Centre d'Étude et de Développement
Agricole Cambodgien (CEDAC), said the girls were trying to cross the river at
night with four friends when their boat was overturned.
The
other four people in the boat managed to swim to safety.
Dr
Koma said he was concerned that people in the area had not been warned about the
dam and did not realize the danger they were in.
"The
people have no awareness of the dam and no one has given them information about
the dam or its impact [on the river]," he said.
"We
are more concerned about their lives, while they don't seem concerned at
all."
Two
other local people have drowned in similar but separate incidents dating back to
December. Dr Koma said that district officials in Andong Meas and Taveng told
him Kwam Chum, a middle aged farmer, drowned when he tried to cross the river to
get to his farm but got caught by the suddenly rising river and swift currents.
They said a fifth victim - an unidentified soldier - was also drowned in a
similar manner.
Ratanakiri
first deputy governor, Van Chunly, confirmed the people had died but said the
matter was still been investigated.
In
addition to the human cost, the river's now-erratic behavior has taken a toll on
crops, boats and fishing equipment. Communication with the area has also been
periodically cut.
In
Taveng district more than a hundred boats have disappeared because the strong
flow.
Dr
Koma said one of the villagers told him that he took two boats to the market
which he beached on a sandy bank while he went to make his purchases. But by the
time he got back, the river had suddenly risen and carried his boat off.
He
said that three villages had started to pack up and move into slash-and-burn
agriculture rather than live near the Se San river.
International
NGO Oxfam has been working with people affected by the Yali Falls dam in
Vietnam.
An
Oxfam spokeswoman said that they were "very concerned about the preventable
humanitarian disaster that resulted from an incident at the Yali dam in Vietnam
the other week."
"We
feel this highlights the importance of proper basin-wide planning for dams, and
are concerned that dam planning too often stops at national borders.
"We
have written to Vietnam National Mekong River Committee General Secretary, Mr
Nguyen Hong Toan, to state our concern and request an update on what action is
being taken by the committee and its fellow country members on this issue.
"In
particular we will be looking forward to hearing how the Vietnamese Government
will be assisting the Cambodian people who have suffered ... and how it plans to
prevent such incidents in the future."
Koy
Sokha, director of Virak Chay National Park, said that the unexpected water
releases are making river travel in the area difficult with the sudden surges of
too much water or - when water is being channeled into the dam - not enough.
He
said that people usually could walk across the Se San River in the dry season,
but dared not anymore because of the fear that it would suddenly rise.
He
even anticipates the usual holiday revelers at Khmer New Year will stay away
from the sandy beaches and swimming areas because of the river's
unpredictability.
So
far all evidence for the damage caused by the dam has been anecdotal, because no
environmental studies on the impact to Cambodia were done prior to planning or
building the dam despite extensive international involvement in its
construction.
With
no forward knowledge of the dams effects, no contingency plan has been put in
place by either the Vietnamese or Cambodian authorities, though complaints and
reports are now being shuttled back and forth.
Sin
Niny, Vice-Chairman of the Cambodian National Mekong Committee (CNMC), said a
report on the problems has been sent to the Vietnamese via the Mekong River
Commission.
Niny
said that the CNMC has suggested to the Vietnamese authorities that they form a
committee with Cambodia to investigate the flooding.
"We
have to find out the real impact of the dam," Niny said.
He
said that if the reports are true then they indicate major problems for the
country, but if they are untrue it could be seen by Vietnam as an attempt to
unfairly embarrass them.
Sin
Kandy, advisor to Ke Taing Lim who is the Cambodian public works minister and
chairman of the Council of the MRC, said Taing Lim had advised the secretariat
of the MRC to negotiate a solution with Vietnam.
Meanwhile
at a local level Dr Koma is calling on the Vietnamese authorities to set up a
warning system so that Cambodians will not be caught unawares of a sudden influx
of water into the area.
The Vietnamese Embassy refused to comment.
Phnom
Penh Post, March 17 - 30, 2000
Cambodia
ignored in dam environmental study
By Bou Saroeun and Carsten Stormer
Cambodia
had no warning as to the likely effects of the Yali Falls dam, because no study
was done by the Vietnamese authorities or international agencies involved in its
construction.
As
the dam has neared completion recently and test runs of the spillway were
undertaken, water surged down the Se San river into Cambodia, causing the deaths
of five people and inundating farm land and disrupting river flows.
The
$730 million project is situated near the Cambodian border in the central
highlands of Vietnam.
Water
from the dam flows into the Se San river which then travels through Ratanakiri,
entering the Mekong near Stung Treng, but none of this was taken into
consideration during the planning or building phases.
The
only Environmental Impact Assessment of the project in effect assumed that
Cambodia did not exist.
The
$1.19 million Swiss Government-funded report commissioned by the Mekong River
Commission from Electrowatt Engineering, a Swiss-based consulting firm, avoided
looking at the effects of the dam on Cambodia by limiting the area it deemed to
be affected.
"For
the purpose of this study, the downstream area has been defined as an area eight
kilometers long and one kilometer wide below the dam," the Electrowatt
report says.
Attempts
by the Post to clarify with the MRC why only one assessment was done, and such a
limited one at that, were unsuccessful.
However,
environmental researcher Chris Lang said that he interviewed a project officer
for the Mekong River Commission in 1995, who told him that "the downstream
impacts of the dam have not been discussed with the Cambodian authorities, as in
1991 UNTAC had not gone into Cambodia, and the position was unsafe."
"Cambodia
was not a member of the Interim Mekong Committee. Now that Cambodia is at peace
it has been reintroduced into the Mekong River Commission."
However
it is far from clear that, even if Electrowatt had included Cambodia in the
study, they would have given sufficient weight and warning to the consequences
of the project.
A
report on Electrowatt commissioned by the Swedish Society for Nature
Conservation criticized the company for recommending that dams be built even in
the face of serious problems.
The
report gave the examples of the Senegal River project which caused an escalation
in the conflict between Senegal and Mauritania, the Manantali dam which caused
an infestation of water-borne diseases so bad donors refused funding to finish
the project, and the Theun Hinboun dam in Laos which blocked fish migration,
destroyed dry-season water resources and severely under estimated the costs of
resettlement and migration.
In
the case of the Yali Falls dam the report criticized Electrowatt for its
attitude to the indigenous hill tribes.
The
reports says: "The EIA takes little account of the traditions and culture
of the Jarai and Bahnar villagers to be evicted by the project, and adopts a
patronizing attitude toward their way of life. For example, the EIA consultants
state: 'It is understood that an effective support is required since the
affected populations belong mainly to the mountain (minority) tribes. Their
knowledge regarding modern agricultural production systems is limited as well as
their thinking regarding economic terms'."
Phnom
Penh Post, June 9 - 22, 2000
Huge
Viet dam devastates Se San valley and its people
Vietnam's
$1 billion Yali Falls dam, under construction for the past seven years, drains
into the Se San river which runs through Cambodia to the Mekong. Before the
dam-building began, no study was done of its environmental effect on Cambodia.
Now, as Bou Saroeun reports, a study has been done, and shows that the dam is
bringing death, disease and environmental devastation to Cambodia even before it
is fully working.
EARLIER
this year the first reports began to emerge from Ratanakkiri that problems had
developed with the Se San river, and that the source of these problems was
upstream at Vietnam's new Yali Falls dam.
Cambodians
along the Se San river told of sudden surges of water drowning five people. In
the single worst case three teenage girls were drowned trying to cross the
river. Villagers spoke of their fishing boats and nets being swept away,
livestock being drowned and crops inundated.
Meetings
were held between Vietnamese and Cambodian officials and assurances were given
that there would be no more releases of water without prior warning. At that
point both sides said the matter had been resolved and that was an end to it.
However
a report issued this week shows that sudden releases of water were only one of a
host of problems.
A
community-based study of the effects of the dam conducted by the Ratanakkiri
Fisheries Office in cooperation with the Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP)
Project funded by Oxfam, concluded that the dam has caused and is causing
serious environmental and socio-economic problems downstream on the Se San in
Cambodia's Ratanakkiri and Stung Treng provinces.
The
reports says interviews with locals revealed that the death toll from drowning
stood at 32 rather than five - and most of the victims were children.
In
addition, locals reported 952 deaths from disease since they perceived a change
in water quality over the past four years. Stock losses have been reported in
the thousands as well as significant numbers of wild animals dying after
drinking water from the river.
A
two-day workshop attended by representatives of ethnic minority groups living on
the Tonle Se San, local and international NGOs, and provincial officials, was
held at the end of May to discuss the effect of the dam.
The
majority of people living along the affected parts of the Se San are ethnic
minorities. Their representatives who attended the workshop demanded that the
clock be turned back.
"I
want the Se San river to be restored to its natural state," said Lamas Voen
from Phi village, Se San commune, O'Yadao district, the closest Cambodian
settlement to the dam.
"We
have suffered flooding for four years. I don't know what we are going to do. We
just sit and wait to see what will happen next. You [dam builders] have to think
how hard our lives are."
She
complained that the water used to be clear even in the dry season, but now it
was permanently dirty and too unhealthy for humans and animals.
The
call for changing the river back was far more dominant than any request for cash
compensation.
"If
they want to give us compensation will they be able to feed us all our lives? It
seems impossible, and what about our children and grandchildren? How are they
going to survive? We want the old Se San back so we can fish and do other
activities the same as before."
According
to the study, the water quality has deteriorated greatly since 1996. Surges of
water coming downstream are reddish in color, muddy and have the foul odor of
stagnant water.
The
report could not quantify the health effects of the water quality, but noted
that people living along the river reported a rapid decline in health once the
changes became apparent.
Locals
complain of intense itchiness, lumps and infections on their skin, and eye
irritation. They have also reported other health problems that have coincided
with the sudden rises in water levels.
These
included stomach aches, diarrhea, respiratory problems, throat and nose
irritation, dizziness, vomiting and coughing. Many reported family members dying
one to five days after becoming ill.
Bou
On, 58, of the Kachok ethnic minority group, represented Kachot village of Ven
Say district at the conference; she said her own health had suffered as a result
of poor water quality.
She
complained of itchiness, diarrhea, vomiting and a persistent cough.
"I
am not lying about the water quality. It is real," she said, showing the
marks of illness on her body.
"I
am sure the water quality has changed a lot since before."
Villagers
also complained about the effects the water has had on their livestock.
Sala
Kwek, of the Kachok ethnic minority group living in Kachot village, Nhang
commune, Andong Meas district, said that since the dam construction started, his
village lost hundreds of buffalo and cows; sometimes 20 to 30 died each day.
According
to the study, villagers claimed that more than 4,900 buffalo have died of
unusual diseases since the water quality problem began in 1996. They also
reported the similar deaths of more than 2,200 cows, 7,800 pigs, 1,600 ducks,
tens of thousands of chickens, and more than 2,500 dogs and cats.
However
similar outbreaks of livestock disease have been recorded far away from the Se
San river, though occurring at the same time that locals say the river water
quality started to decline. A CARERE official said that makes it hard to draw
definite conclusions about the cause and effect of the dam on livestock health.
Still,
villagers remain convinced that water quality in the Se San river has harmed
their domestic animals, with the greatest effects being noted near the river.
Dr
Lena Vought, an expert on lakes, ponds and streams from Lund University in
Sweden, has suggested that the problem may be associated with the presence of
toxic blue-green algae in the Yali reservoir contaminating the Se San.
Since
there has never been any detailed water quality surveys conducted in the Se San
in Ratanakkiri, it is difficult to confirm this hypothesis.
But,
if blue-green algae is causing the problem, it has probably developed in the
Yali reservoir, where excessive nutrients have been released from the decaying
vegetation causing excessive algae growth.
Dr
Vought said in the study that there have been similar cases where water
contaminated with the toxic blue-green algae has proved fatal to livestock.
Ratanakkiri
province has some of the richest areas of wildlife in Cambodia, but these
animals too have been seriously affected by the hydrological changes in the Se
San as well as suffering from the effects of the water quality changes.
In
Virachey National Park, on the northern side of the Se San river in Ta Veng and
Ven Say districts, reptiles, mammals and birds have died or become ill at a
greater than usual rate.
People
from many communities along the Se San have reported finding dead wildlife near
their villages over the past few years. Many villagers believe that the wild
animals had gone down to the Se San river to drink and then died shortly
afterwards.
The
species most affected were wild boar, barking deer and sambar deer. In addition,
a small number of civet cats, porcupines and rodents have also been found dead
in the forest.
People
from O'Yadao district, near the Vietnamese border, reported finding 10 dead Gaur
near the Se San river over the last year.
The
changing water quality is also believed to have harmed fish stocks and habitat.
The
number of fish has declined noticeably, with some villagers putting fish stocks
down by as much as 30 percent.
Meanwhile
four years of irregular flooding have caused major food shortages to people in
the area.
Dry
season crops which are planted along the banks of the Se San have been swept
away by the surges of water following discharges from the dam.
Locals
now rely on wild potatoes and other tubers to sustain them.
"We
have no rice to eat; we survive with the wild potatoes and bamboo shoots mixed
with banana fruit to make the porridge," said Bou On.
She
said food that was collected and stored like prahok was no longer available
because of the decline in fish stocks.
Sal
Kway, deputy chief of Se San commune, explained how the villagers can no longer
plan how to plant their crops because the unpredictable water levels in the dry
season can wipe out their work - and their seed stocks, which they could not
afford to lose.
To
Peav, 50, of the Taveng commune committee, echoed Kway's comments and added that
people were being forced to travel increasing distances to forage for food.
He
said the tubers and cassava that they rely on for food during the rainy season
when the rice had run out were being destroyed by the excessive flooding.
Peav
said he was disappointed that the Government had persuaded the hill tribes
people to come down from the mountains and settle along the Se San river in the
vain idea of national progress.
"How
can we progress the country without food to eat?" he asked.
"We
want the country to progress, but how can it while we can't grow rice, farm or
even have a garden?"
He
said people needed food for their day-to-day living before they can think about
progress.
The
lack of food security in villages along the Se San river is particularly
critical this year. Lowland areas have been devastated by the floods while the
upland swidden farms have been badly affected by early rains in 1999. Hence very
little rice has been stockpiled since last year. Villages that used to have rice
surplus, such as Ko Piak and Pak Kalan of Ven Say district, are below
subsistence level.
In
addition, the study said that about 14 types of river plants that villagers used
to collect to eat have been in serious decline over the past few years.
Tobacco,
one of the most popular plants that villagers used to grow along the river bank,
is now impossible to cultivate.
Vat
Chrang, 30, of Tom Pong Roeung Thom village, said that he and other villagers
were disappointed that they had had to give up on the crop.
"I
care more about tobacco than rice; if I don't have tobacco I don't have energy
to harvest or do farm work," he said. "Tobacco is my first
energy."
One
of the most important dry season occupations for local people living along the
Se San river used to be gold panning.
It
was especially important in Andong Meas and O'Yadao districts, where gold is
plentiful in the river bed.
Local
people used to rely on gold panning to supply them with funds to buy rice in
years of shortages, and when they wanted to buy a buffalo or a cow, gold panning
was the main means of getting the cash to do so.
Of
59 villages surveyed, 47 reported that they used to do gold panning until the
dam started causing water level fluctuations. In the upper parts of the basin,
it is the fear of surges of water sweeping people away that has stopped people
panning. Further downstream, locals have stopped because the holes they dig in
the riverbed to find the gold silt up when the water rises.
The
irregular water pattern of the Se San is now looking likely to force the hill
tribes back to their historical practice of swidden (slash and burn) farming.
Sal
Kway said the last few years beside the Se San have been very difficult. He said
they want to abandon their villages but were wary because they realize it would
be against the government's wishes.
"Now
that we live along the Se San river we suffer from the floods and if we go to
live in the hills we go against the government policy. I don't know how to solve
this problem," he said.
Vat
Chrang's answer is to try to live a double life. He has slashed an area in the
uplands for a rice crop but still lives in his village on the Se San. He said
the situation was not ideal, because the farm is far from the market and he has
to spend two hours each way traveling.
According
to the study, other villagers living along the Se San river have adopted a
similar strategy.
For
example, 20 Lao families from Hat Pok village have started doing swidden
agriculture in upland areas far from their villages. In Pong and Fang villages,
two other Lao communities in Ven Say district, most of the people in the
villages have started doing swidden agriculture behind their communities,
although they have little experience at this type of farming.
According
to villagers in Pong village, the forest behind their village has all been
flattened as a result, and they admit that they are not adept at the technique
compared to the upland farmers.
But
many village leaders spoken to by the study team feel they have no option but to
abandon their villages and return to higher ground and farm as their forebears
did - clearing areas of forest and growing crops till the land is exhausted then
moving on.
The
study says that the people living along the Se San river in Ratanakkiri belong
to a diverse array of ethnic groups, and have significant cultural differences.
However,
except for the Lao and the Chinese, who are largely Buddhist, the vast majority
of the indigenous people living along the Se San river in Ratanakkiri are
animists, with deep spiritual connections to nature and the spirit world.
They
attribute the flooding and subsequent water damage to forest spirits becoming
angry.
Bou
On and other workshop participants spoken to by the Post said that before they
learned about Vietnam's Yali Falls dam-building, they used to believe the
spirits were angry with the people but did not know why.
"I
sacrificed chickens and sometimes the villagers sacrificed the buffaloes and
cows to the spirits so they would not get angry with us and save us. But nothing
changed," she said.
Most
of the people spoken to did not know about the Yali Falls dam until long after
the river became erratic, and attributed the river's behavior to the spirits.
Now that they know about the dam, they are still inclined to think the spirits
are playing a part.
One
old Tampuan woman, from Kachon Kroam village in Ven Say district, provided a
spiritual explanation for why the people along the Se San river are suffering so
much from the dam.
"I
think the spirit of the water and the spirit of the trees are angry with the
humans," she said. "The Vietnamese have blocked the path of the
spirits of the water, and the dam has caused many big trees in the reservoir
area to be flooded.
"Therefore, both the spirit of the water and the spirits of the big trees are angry. When the Vietnamese release the water downstream from the reservoir, it is like releasing the angry spirits upon us and the spirits make us sick and cause a lot of us to die."
Environment
News Service, June 27, 2000
Mekong Basin Dams Claim Lives, Cause Poverty, Bank Warned
By Bob Burton
SYDNEY, Australia, June 27, 2000(ENS) - The Asian Development Bank is being
urged to defer a decision on funding of a controversial 240 megawatt
hydroelectric scheme on the Se San River in Vietnam until more detailed studies
on likely impacts have been completed. The requests came at a major
international conference here on the weekend.
The conference, organized by the Australian Mekong Resource Centre, comes at a
critical time for the Asian Development Bank, which is negotiating with donor
countries for replenishment funding to its concessional loan fund.
However, with dissatisfaction with the performance of the ADB increasing, donor
countries such as Australia are pressing for reforms.
Witoon Permpongsharoen from nongovernmental organization Towards Ecological
Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA) based in Bangkok, Thailand said the Yali
Falls dam in Vietnam, demonstrates the dangers of large scale hydropower
projects in the area. The Yali Falls dam is just 20 kilometres (12.4 miles)
upstream from the proposed Se San 3 dam.
A report completed in late May by the Fisheries Office of the adjoining
downstream province in Cambodia reveals that the Yali Falls hydroelectric
scheme, funded by the Russian government, had caused "serious ecological
and social impacts" to 20,000 people in 59 villages in the dam affected
area.
Since the dam was constructed, 32 people have drowned as a result of surges in
water flows while deterioration in water quality has had major impacts on the
health of downstream users, the report states.
"Although it is not entirely clear how many people have died as a direct
and indirect result of changes in water quality, local people report that 952
people have perished since the problems began over four years ago, and that
water quality has been the cause of all or most of the deaths," according
to the Cambodian report.
The ADB, a multi-lateral development bank dominated by contributions from Japan
and the United States, is facing increasing opposition from within the region
and from international nongovernmental organizations for its role in supporting
environmentally and socially damaging projects.
In 1992, the ADB established the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) economic
cooperation program to integrate the economies of member countries - Burma,
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Yunnan province of China.
Particular emphasis has been placed on the studies and projects aimed at
infrastructure development, including roads and hydropower plans.
"The rich human and natural resource endowments of the Mekong region have
made it a new frontier of Asian economic growth," ADB Programs Department
deputy director, Rajat Nag, told the conference.
Controversy over the impacts of hydropower projects is widespread through the
region.
Permpongsharoen from TERRA told the conference the ADB had dismissed concerns
about the Theun Hinboun dam in Laos. "There is little for the environmental
lobby to criticize in Theun Hinboun - there is no flooding, virtually no
reservoir, and no need to resettle anyone," the ADB had claimed.
The Nam Theun is one of the largest tributaries of the Mekong River in Laos. The
Theun-Hinboun hydro scheme, partly funded by a $US60 million loan from the ADB,
was approved for construction in 1994.
A subsequent Asian Development Bank mission to the area, "admits there 'are
major impacts related to the project operation' that include damage to village
water supplies, vegetable gardens and fisheries," Permpongsharoen told the
conference.
"In the first year of the operation, the project earned $US16 million for
the government of Laos, only two-thirds of the revenue predicted by the ADB and
less than the loan service repayments," Permpongsharoen said.
"There is a profound difference between what the ADB says and what they
really do. The ADB talk about poverty reduction but the people say you are going
to make us poor. You shouldn't allow them to use your money for projects that
make people poor," he said.
Fisheries biologist, Terry Warren, revealed at the conference that a report he
authored on the impact on fisheries as a result of the Theun-Hinboun dam had
been suppressed.
"Earlier environmental impact assessment reports," he said,
"clearly underestimated the impacts to fish populations and
fisheries."
Warren's 1998 study found significant impacts on fisheries which had adversely
affected reduced fish catches for 13 riverside villages. Fisheries are a vital
source of protein for local villagers.
"To date, the Thuen Hinboun Power company, its directors and the Asian
Development Bank appear to be unwilling to make the final report a public
document whilst at the same time apparently offering criticism about its lack of
clear recommendations," Warren told the conference.
Representatives from the Asian Development Bank at the conference were stung by
the criticism from Warren. "It happened on our watch and we have got to do
something about it. We can't undo what was done, that was stupid and that
shouldn't have happened. We are working on the compensation package and we have
got the [power] company to agree with us," the ADB Programs Department
deputy director, Rajat Nag, told the conference.
Professor of Economics from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Pasuk
Phongpaichit, told the conference that opposition to environmentally damaging
projects is rapidly escalating in her country.
"At present in Thailand, virtually every big project for an energy plant,
dam or waste disposal project is being strongly opposed by a coalition of
affected local people, activist NGO's and environmental groups," she said.
"The Mekong countries governments may short sightedly adopt the ADB's
strategy and allow themselves to be strapped with huge public debts from loans
for big dams and other infrastructure projects in the name of anti-poverty
policy," Phongpaichit cautioned