B. THE NAM PONG BASIN (THAILAND) (contd.)

6. SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE FISHERMEN

The Mekong Secretariat conducted the first study on socio-economic aspects of the fishermen in Ubolratana reservoir in 1971 (Mekong Secretariat, 1972). Six years later, the second study was made during June 1977 to September 1978 as part of the Nam Pong Environmental Management Research Project (Suetrong et al., 1979). This study covered three major areas of the Nam Pong River Basin development project, the lake-side villages, the Nong Wai irrigation area, and the resettlement areas. The investigation was designed for collecting socio-economic information on fishery sector which is considered necessary to the development and management of the fisheries in Ubolratana reservoir. Details of collected data are elaborated in Table 7.

6.1 Social aspects

Every adult farmer in Thailand regardless of sex knows how to catch fish. Prior to the development of the Nam Pong river project, fish were caught mainly for household consumption, with only a few being for sale, particularly in Khon Kaen province. After the Ubolratana Dam was closed, farmers living in the villages nearby found it advantageous to fish the new reservoir. Their catches were good and they had a good income from fishing due to the high fish production during the first few years. At that time there were also relatively few fishermen in the area. Soon, however, there was an influx of others, mostly rice farmers who were attracted by better prospects of fishing instead of rice farming.

A survey around Ubolratana reservoir in 1971 indicated that 88.4% of the fishermen were previously engaged in rice farming, 1.6% in upland farming (mostly kenaf), 6.1% were wage labourers, and only 1.8% were fishing for a living before moving to the lakeshore. The rest (2.1%) were unidentified (Mekong Secretariat, 1972). Most of the farmers who changed their occupation to fishing were mainly those who lived in the same vicinity for some time before the reservoir was established. About 40% were moved in from elsewhere. About half of the latter were from other parts of Khon Kaen and Udon Thani, the provinces at the border of which the reservoir is located. The other one-third were from other provinces in the northeast and the rest were from other regions of the country.

* 1 U.S. dollar = 23 baht (1983)

Adapted from: Suetrong et al., (1979)

The average size of a fisherman family increased from 6.0 to 6.5 persons. The fishermen population was classified into young independents (0–14 years), work-force (15–64 years), and old dependents (over 65 years) representing 43.0%, 53.9% and 3.1% respectively. There was a higher percentage of females over males for all age groups, giving an average of 52.4% females to 47.6 males. About two-thirds of the population were married.

The majority of the population (74.7%) had some education. Primary school Grade 4 was the highest level reached by most, representing 68.9%. Primary school Grades 5–7 education had only been reached by 3.1% and secondary education by 2.0%. A mere 0.2% went to college. It was found that 74.9% of the economically active group (work-force) were farmers by occupation. Fishing (6.4%) and working as labourers (4.3%) were the second and third most common occupations. Merchants and government civil servants made up less than 2%.

Dwelling units in the fishing villages belonged to three types, permanent (67.9%), semi-permanent (27.7%) and temporary (4.4%). The permanent type dwellings, mostly native style of two storey house with open ground floor, were generally owned by large, long settled well-off families. The other two types were owned by those who had moved in after the construction of the dam. In general, a house had 2–3 rooms.

Rice is the single major crop grown by farming households (60.9%). The others grow rice and other crops, 15.8% grow rice and kenaf, 8.5% rice and cassava, and 8.0% rice, fruits and vegetables. Other crops are grown in limited quantities. The gross production value of rice alone accounted for 89% of the total gross value of all crops grown. Kenaf and cassava accounted for a further 4.6% and 2.5% respectively.

6.2 Economic aspects of fishing operations

Fishing operation as practised in Ubolratana reservoir involves only one or two persons in each family. The operation is simple and consists of setting gill-nets. Another method is light attraction of the freshwater sardine-like Corica goniognathus during moonless nights. Other methods of fishing involve the use of cast-nets, hooks and line, lift-nets, bamboo traps, and some others to catch fish. The results of this fishing is largely insignificant in terms of the number of persons involved or the quantity of fish caught compared to those from fixed gill-nets.

A sampling survey of the type and number of fishing gears owned by fishermen households in selected villages of the lakeside was conducted during the socio-economic studies in 1977–78 (Suetrong et al., 1979). It was found that gill-nets were owned by 77.6% of the fishing households, averaging 4.7 nets per fishing household (Table 8). 40.3% of the households possessed hook and long-line. Life-nets and cast-nets were owned by only 8.6% and 13.4% of the fishing household respectively. The possession of a boat in this area also indicated that one is seriously involved in the pursuit of fishing. Unmotorized boats were owned by 53.5% of the fishing households, and motorized boats by 18.6%. 17.9% of the fishing households did not own boats which indicates that they engaged mainly in farming.

Capital investment in fisheries in Ubolratana reservoir was rather small. It was estimated to be on the average 594.56 baht per household in 1971 (Mekong Secretariat, 1972), and increased to 949.10 baht in 1978 (Suetrong et al., 1979). Although the average amount of capital investment was small, there were still some fishermen who did not have enough cash to invest. In case he could not afford to pay the total cost in cash, he would pay for part of it leaving the balance to be paid by installments. In some cases when the fisherman did not have any cash he would rely entirely on credit, in which case he would normally be obliged to sell fish only to his creditor, sometimes at a price slightly lower than that prevailing.

Fishing was an additional source of income for the 179 households in the sample villages in Nong Wai irrigation area. The total value of annual fish caught was 194,383 baht or 1,086 baht per fishing household. Of this amount, 80% was used for home consumption and the balance sold or bartered (Table 9).

Sixteen households in the sample villages in the resettlement area, a quarter of the total number of sample households, enjoyed some income from fishing. The fish they caught was valued at 16,350 baht, averaging 1,021.90 baht per household per annum. Only four households had fish left over from consumption for selling (Table 9).

In the lakeside area, 397 households in the sample villages engaged in fishing. The average household catch was 1,193 kg of fish annually worth 5,877 baht. Of these fish, they sold 947.3 kg (79.4% of the catch) worth 4,686 baht. The remaining 245.7 kg was consumed by the household (Tables 9 and 10).

The distribution of fish caught from Ubolratana reservoir starts daily early in the morning after fishermen return with their catch. Almost every lakeside village has one or more fishmongers who move about in motor driven boats. A fishmonger usually buys fish from fishermen who live in the same village and sells to the wholesaler at landing places, mainly at Tha Rua Ubolratana. There, the fish is sold principally to:

(a) the wholesalers who buy fresh fish for resale at retail markets;

(b) the fish processors who buy fish for fermenting, salting or smoking.

Those who buy fish for fermentation engage labourers, mostly women, to process it manually in the vicinity of the purchase area. Those who process the fish by salting and smoking buy only a few, mainly snakeheads and catfish, to process them in the backyard of their house, usually not far away from the landing place. The wholesalers occasionally arrive to buy the processed fish and take them to consumers, mainly in Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, and in the nearby provinces.

7. OVERALL PROJECT COSTS AND BENEFITS

The Government of Thailand has made considerable investment in developing the Nam Pong River Basin in Khon Kaen for hydroelectric power, irrigation, fisheries, flood control and recreation. It has been argued whether this project really serves these purposes and whether it has been worth the investment. To answer this question, Miss Sangsriratanakul (1981) of Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, conducted a study on evaluation and reappraisal of cost-benefit analysis for this project. In her study she summarized all costs related to the overall project development as presented in Table 11. She assumed the project life is 50 years and gave the year 1966 as the base year for economic comparison. Summations of all annual costs including those incurred prior to 1966 are made to the year 2016.

The total project cost was estimated at 6,548 million baht. It consisted of 1,022 million baht for power features and joint use facilities at the Ubolratana head-work; 1,565 million baht for irrigation system; 331 million baht for resettlement development; 1,652 million baht for foregone output from forest, and 1,979 million baht for foregone output from paddy fields.

She also demonstrated the monetary value benefits from power generation, irrigation, flood control, fisheries and recreation. All of the anticipated benefits are summarized in Table 12. The overall project benefit is estimated at 11,644 million baht, comprising 2,948 million baht from hydroelectric power, 5,651 million baht from irrigation; 1,314 million baht from flood control; 1,651 million baht from fisheries and 80 million baht from recreation.

The benefit-cost ratio estimate was based on a project life of 50 years and interest rate of 6, 8 and 10%. It gives the ratio of 1.08, 0.91 and 0.77 for discount rates of 6, 8 and 10% respectively (Table 13). The outcome indicates that the project provides negligible benefits, in other words, it is a poor investment.

8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Since 1959, and especially after the completion of the dam in 1965, the Government of Thailand has been developing the Nam Pong River as a multiple-use water project for generating hydroelectric power, irrigation, fisheries, navigation, and recreation. The produced electricity is distributed to 8 provinces of the northeastern Thailand, namely to Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Kalasin, Maha Sarakam, Roi-et, Chaiyaphum and Nakhon Ratchasima. The average annual energy production is 65 million kilowatt-hours.

The irrigation system of this project is designed to provide water for agriculture on an area of 42,287 ha. By the end of 1982 about 93% was completed, with the remaining 7% to be completed by the end of 1985. Two resettlements have been established, i.e. at Nam Pong in Khon Kaen province and at Non Sang in Udon Thani province. These resettlements have 4,000 families or about 20,000 persons.

The establishment of Ubolratana reservoir has provided an ideal fishery resource to the rural inhabitants, who are mostly rice farmers. Many farmers have become fishermen and they earn more income from fishing than from farming. The survey in 1978 showed that there were over 5,600 fishermen operating on this reservoir. The average annual fish catch was estimated to be 1,800 metric tons.

Table 11
Summary of the cost of the Nam Pong river development project (from Sangsriratanakul, 1981)

Year	Power and joint use facilities		Irrigation facilities				Resettlement
			Construction costs M		OM&Amp;A M	Total Cost M	Construction and OM&A, M	Total Project Cost, M (1)	Forest foregone output M (2)	Paddy field foregone output (3)	Total project cost M (1+2+3)
	Construction M	OM&A M	Main irrigation system	Nong Wai on farm
1964							14.83	14.83	2.26	12.63	29.72
1965			33.78			33.78	14.83	48.61	2.46	14.31	65.38
1966	463.67	4.84	30.16			30.16	65.83	564.50	2.80	14.02	581.32
1967		5.90	54.69			54.69	5.83	66.42	2.56	4.02	73.00
1968		6.09	62.53		0.48	63.01	5.83	74.93	3.04	11.63	89.60
1969		6.33	64.59		2.01	66.60	2.92	75.85	2.56	18.42	96.83
1970		6.29	56.19		1.97	58.16	2.92	67.37	2.62	14.64	84.63
1971		4.33	50.36		1.98	52.34	2.92	59.59	3.02	12.01	74.62
1972		5.82	38.95		2.07	41.02	3.01	49.85	3.50	15.16	68.51
1973		4.83	35.79		3.04	38.83	3.01	46.87	5.61	19.75	72.03
1974		7.44	46.69		3.71	50.40	3.01	60.85	5.19	33.40	99.44
1975		10.88	28.90	0.18	3.41	33.39	3.01	47.28	1.93	32.75	31.96
1976		13.58	51.18	37.10	4.42	92.70	3.09	109.37	7.36	26.48	143.71
1977		11.46	30.22	146.36	2.15	178.73	5.12	195.31	7.15	26.74	229.90
1978		11.46	23.26	68.94	2.68	94.88	5.12	111.46	9.81	34.41	155.68
1979		12.40	110.46	62.10	3.67	176.23	5.12	193.75	12.26	41.68	247.69
1980		12.40	110.46	84.36	4.92	199.74	5.12	217.26	15.32	47.05	279.63
1981		12.40	-	58.56	5.99	64.55	5.12	82.07	19.16	46.38	147.61
1982		12.40	-	4.38	6.39	10.77	5.12	28.29	23.95	45.30	97.54
1983		12.40	-	4.96	6.39	11.35	5.12	28.87	29.94	46.64	105.45
1984		12.40	-	4.28	6.39	10.67	5.12	28.19	37.43	47.79	113.41
1985		12.40	-	4.78	6.39	11.17	5.12	28.69	49.79	46.88	122.36
After
1985		12.40	-	-	6.39	6.39	5.12	23.91	46.79	45.55	116.25
Total
1964–1985	463.67	558.05	828.21	467.21	260.66	1,564.86	330.72	2,917.31	1,651.62	1,978.59	6,547.52

Table 12

Summary of the benefits of the Nam Pong river development project (from Sangsriratanakul, 1981)

Year	Power M	Irrigation M	Flood control M	Fishery M	Recreation M	Total Project benefit M
1966	31.41	-	11.0	2.41	0.60	45.62
1967	38.33	-	11.1	3.88	1.21	54.52
1968	36.08	-	10.6	6.12	1.05	53.85
1969	34.30	2.99	11.1	12.90	0.90	62.24
1970	35.84	3.30	10.7	10.04	1.21	61.09
1971	45.58	3.29	10.4	16.79	1.47	77.53
1972	40.43	3.06	11.6	14.42	1.60	71.11
1973	29.68	20.59	14.3	18.79	1.54	84.90
1974	40.95	29.95	18.1	27.45	1.28	117.78
1975	40.32	38.46	20.2	18.15	1.10	118.23
1976	62.18	29.61	21.0	38.0	1.66	152.47
1977	55.20	0.94	21.8	38.0	1.68	112.62
1978	56.08	12.28	22.7	38.0	1.68	130.74
1979	59.43	38.24	23.6	38.0	1.68	160.95
1980	60.40	68.87	24.6	38.0	1.68	193.55
1981	61.39	106.76	25.5	38.0	1.68	233.35
1982	62.41	147.70	26.6	38.0	1.68	276.39
1983	63.17	154.13	27.6	38.0	1.68	284.38
1984	64.55	155.96	28.7	38.0	1.68	286.69
1985	65.65	155.96	29.9	38.0	1.68	291.19
After 1985	65.65	155.96	31.1	38.0	1.68	292.39
Total benefit
1966–2016	2,955.73	5,650.89	1,314.10	1,650.95	79.71	11,643.63

Table 13

Estimated benefit cost ratio of the project (with total costs) (from Sangsriratanakul, 1981)

				Interest rate 6 per cent			Interest rate 8 per cent			Interest rate 10 per cent
Consecutive Year	Year	Annual cost M	Annual benefit M	Present worth factor	Present worth Value		Present worth factor	Present worth value		Present worth factor	Present worth Value
					Cost M	Benefit M		cost M	Benefit M		cost M	Benefit M
-	1964	29.72	-	1.124	33.40	-	1.166	34.65	-	1.210	35.96	-
-	1965	65.38	-	1.060	69.30	-	1.080	70.61	-	1.100	71.91	-
0	1966	581.32	45.62	1.000	581.32	45.62	1.000	581.32	45.62	1.000	581.32	45.62
1	1967	73.00	54.52	0.934	68.86	51.43	0.9259	67.59	50.48	0.9091	66.36	49.56
2	1968	89.60	53.85	0.8900	79.74	47.92	0.8573	76.81	46.16	0.8264	74.04	44.50
3	1969	96.83	62.24	0.8396	81.29	52.25	0.7958	76.86	49.40	0.7513	72.74	46.76
4	1970	84.63	61.09	0.7921	67.04	48.38	0.7350	12.20	44.90	0.6830	57.80	41.72
5	1971	74.62	77.53	0.7473	55.76	57.93	0.6806	50.78	52.76	0.6209	46.33	48.14
6	1972	68.51	71.11	0.7050	48.29	50.13	0.6320	43.17	44.81	0.5645	38.67	40.18
7	1973	72.03	84.90	0.6651	47.91	56.46	0.5835	42.02	49.53	0.5132	36.96	43.57
8	1974	99.44	117.73	0.6274	62.38	73.86	0.5403	53.72	63.60	0.4665	46.38	54.92
9	1975	81.96	118.23	0.5919	48.51	69.98	0.5002	40.99	59.13	0.4241	34.71	50.14
10	1976	143.71	152.47	0.5584	80.24	85.13	0.4632	66.56	70.62	0.3055	55.40	58.78
11	1977	229.90	112.62	0.5268	121.11	59.32	0.4289	98.60	48.30	0.3505	80.57	39.47
12	1978	155.68	130.74	0.4970	77.37	64.97	0.3971	61.82	51.91	0.3168	49.63	41.42
13	1979	247.69	160.95	0.4688	116.12	75.45	0.3677	91.07	59.18	0.2897	71.75	48.36
14	1980	279.63	193.55	0.4423	123.68	85.60	0.3405	95.21	65.90	0.2663	73.62	51.54
15	1981	147.61	233.35	0.4173	61.59	97.37	0.3152	46.52	73.55	0.2394	35.33	55.86
16	1982	97.54	276.39	0.3936	38.39	108.78	0.2919	28.47	80.67	0.2176	21.22	60.14
17	1983	105.45	284.88	0.3714	39.16	105.80	0.2703	28.50	77.00	0.1978	20.85	56.35
18	1984	113.41	288.89	0.3503	39.73	101.19	0.2502	28.37	72.28	0.7199	20.40	51.97
19	1985	122.36	291.19	0.3305	40.43	96.23	0.2317	28.35	64.46	0.1635	20.00	47.61
20–50	1986–2016	116.25	292.39	4.2919	498.93	1,254.90	2.4148	280.72	706.06	1.4008	162.84	409.58
	Total	6,547.52	11,643.53	-	2,480.55	2,688.70	-	2,054.91	1,879.32	-	1,774.83	1,379.97

Besides the capture fisheries in the Ubolratana reservoir, fish farming was also introduced into the project area. At present, there are 183 fish ponds with a total surface area of 31 ha and 96 paddy fields covering a surface area of 65 ha which are used for fish culture in the Nong Wai irrigation area.

Gill-net is the most popular fishing gear in the Ubolratana reservoir. Capital investment in fishing is low, less than 1,000 baht per year. Fishermen usually sell their fish to fishmongers who buy fish in villages and/or on fishing grounds. Fishmongers then transport the fish to landing centres and sell them to wholesalers. From there, the wholesalers transport the fish to retail markets which are situated mainly in Khon Kaen and Udon Thani provinces. The average annual income of a fisherman is estimated to be 5,000 baht per person.

The total cost of the Nam Pong river development project is estimated at 6,547.52 million baht and the overall project benefit estimate is 11,643.53 million baht. When based on the project life of 50 years, the benefit-cost ratio is estimated 1.08, 0.91 and 0.77 for interest rates of 6, 8 and 10% respectively. The project appears therefore to be uneconomic.

9. REFERENCES

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Jaiyen, K. et al., 1979 Plankton. In Nam Pong Environmental Management Project Working Document Number, 13. Bangkok, Mekong Secretariat.

Jindarojana, J. et al., 1979 Water quality. Nam Pong Management Research Project Working Document Number, 11. Bangkok, Mekong Secretariat.

Mekong Secretariat, 1972 Socio-economic aspects of fishery operations in the Nam Pong Reservoir 1970–1971. Bangkok, UN/ECAFE

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