GRANDMA HAI'S LONG BATTLE FOR JUSTICE

       Hai Khanjanta's rice paddy may not yield a good harvest this year because the plants are being attacked by aphids. But this is not a big deal for the 80-yearold grandmother as long as she has land to grow rice again.
       After a 30-year battle to reclaim her land after the construction of a dam,last week she was awarded 1.2 million baht in compensation.
       But the story of "Grandma Hai", as she is popularly known, a resident of Na Tan village in Ubon Ratchathani province, would not be known if she had not dug a hole in the crest of Huay La Ha dam in 2004 to reclaim her submerged paddy.
       Not only did she breach the dam wall, she also brought to public attention the plight of struggling farmers trying to protect their land from poor water-management planning.
       Mrs Hai is a subsistence farmer,and the paddy is her livelihood. As far back as she can remember, her family relied on the paddy as its main source of income. Since she was a child, Mrs Hai helped her mother grow rice and as she was the favourite daughter she eventually inherited the best plot of the family paddy located near a stream.
       But by the late 1970s a reservoir with a storage capacity of 240,000 cubic metres was built in her village by the now defunct Rural Development Department under the Interior Ministry.In 1977, water started to fill the reservoir,gradually submerging rice paddies in the area.
       Even though it's a relatively small reservoir, the consent of local residents was needed in principle before the project started. But the planners failed to get the approval of Mrs Hai, her husband Fong and her brother-in-law.Both men died a few years ago, having never given their consent for the project.
       "This paddy was my mother's land.My mother and my father left their footprints everywhere. How could I let it go?" said Mrs Hai, sitting next to her paddy which is now sprouting lush green shoots.
       She is a small, white-haired woman with the tough skin of someone who has spent their life working under the sun. But there is a flash of defiance in her eyes when she recalls her battle with authorities.
       After construction of the reservoir started, Mrs Hai and the two men travelled many times to various government agencies, sometimes by train, more often by foot, to put their case. They even made the trek to Government House to be given different promises by different administrations, none of which offered a solution.
       To finance their fight to reclaim the 14-rai plot of land, Mrs Hai and her husband sold other property including an orchard and buffalos. This plunged the family deeper into poverty to the point where they could not take care of all their 10 children, who were forced to find their own livelihoods. Their youngest child, Phetch, moved to Bangkok to work as a nanny at the age of 11."That reservoir has tortured me so much. But it's my land, it's my right,and I had to take it back," said Mrs Hai, her voice rising with emotion.
       Mrs Hai joined regional rights groups, including the Assembly of the Poor, which helped her fight her case.
       But in March 2004, after 27 years of frustration, Mrs Hai's patience ran out.
       On the night of March 11 amidst thunder and rain she built a shack on an edge of the reservoir and offered up a song to the heavens seeking guidance.
       "The sky rumbles humbly. I've wandered all these long years in my thoughts but can't find the way out. I have waited, waited, but still haven't seen the way out," she sang that night in her local dialect.
       One month later, Mrs Hai, her husband and children, armed with a hammer and a spade, started to knock a hole in the dam wall to release the water. Five days later, a half-metre hole appeared and water streamed out.
       "The neighbours came to us to ask us to stop being so stubborn. But I just couldn't stop by then. I no longer had a fear of anything - the neighbours,the village head and kamnan, or the police, because by then I was already old," said Mrs Hai.
       She took her paddy back that year without being arrested. The then Thaksin government intervened and demanded the relevant agencies investigate her case. They examined documents and came to the conclusion that the three had never given approval for the dam and should be compensated.
       But a government panel on poverty recommended the case be suspended as it would set a precedent for other claims.
       It was not until last week that the Abhisit government agreed to pay com-pensation to Mrs Hai of 1.2 million baht. In that five-year waiting period Mrs Hai has not been idle. She began growing rice again with the help of her children, but admits that in the past few years she can no longer do the work.
       "When I got my land back, I also got my life back," she said."Is it worth doing this and seeing myself losing almost everything? It may not have been, but I had to do it because it's my right, it's my land, my family's land."
       Somparn Kuendee, an academic with the Assembly of the Poor, said Grandma Hai's case reflected how poorly the state thought about development projects. She said the reservoir was relatively small, but had caused enormous hardship to the people involved.
       She said the Abhisit government's review of the case can be regarded as a positive sign for solving poverty problems as it was an admission the state had made a mistake and then corrected it.
       She said Mrs Hai deserved the compensation as she had not only lost her livelihood, but other opportunities. This not only penalised her, but also her children, like Phetch, who should have had a better education and future.
       BACK ON HER FARM: Grandma Hai takes a walk on the farm she fought so hard to keep, and inset, neighbours gather for a ceremony to bring her luck in her battle with authorities.
       DAM BUSTER:Grandma Hai Khanjanta looks at the dam that drowned her family's rice fields.