On the banks of Thailand’s Mun River, villages are struggling to survive in the shadow of the dams View as Gallery Raiwan Anan-uea, 48, recalls a simple and happy adolescence in the district of Rasi Salai, where a dozen villages shared the abundant resources available in this remote corner of Isan (north-eastern) Thailand. “All year round we could grow rice, beans, cucumbers and potatoes. We could pick bamboo, catch catfish and water snails, cultivate honey, graze cattle, collect firewood and kenaf to make ropes. It was a natural pantry and a pharmacy where we just had to help ourselves. Then life became much harder.”