Rules/regulations governing reservoirs

[Tagaa]

I thought there used to be a legal forum, but I can not locate one. So I will post my question here.

 

I live on a relatively large lake that is a man made reservoir. There are a few small canoe type boats on it and a few have a long tail motor. Being a sailor back home, I would like to have some sort of boat here. I could have a small sail boat, but traditionally it is only windy in the winter months.

 

After much consideration, I deduced that the type of boat I would get the most use out of would be a pontoon boat with an outboard of 30 or 40 HP...fishing, a small BBQ with a few friends, drinks at sunset, that type of thing. I did a lot of searching & found a company that makes aluminum boats in BKK, and they can build a pontoon boat like I an looking for, with some parts sourced from China. I have seen photos of the finished product & they are quite nice.

 

Prior to scheduling a trip to the factory & ordering the boat, I FINALLY convinced my Thai speaking half into going to the lake management office & confirming we could have said boat & not have any problem with the govt lackey in charge. His answer was, I'm told, ...."NO."   It was reported to me that he was surly & much less than friendly so she is reticent to go back & find out exactly what type of boat we can have, short of a canoe with a long tail lawn mower type engine. Some large reservoirs here have motorized  floating houses and party boats, so his opinion makes no sense to me

 

Does anyone have a link to or a copy of the actual written rules that regulate reservoirs in Thailand? There has to be something written, not just an opinion of the local lake muckity muk. I have the Thailand Civil & Commercial code, in English, but I can find no reference to my query.

[Peterw42]

Just a thought, Do you have water frontage, as in you could launch from your property or dock. maybe its only people who directly have lake access can have a boat, otherwise anyone could put a boat there. I could ask to put a boat there and I dont live there. Is there a place where people launch their boats from ?

Is it a proper reservoir as in peoples drinking water etc ?

[Tagaa]

Yes...As I said "I live ON a relatively large lake..."

 

There is no boat ramp, if that's what you were asking. No boats get launched. They (the square shaped home built canoe type boats) are simply pulled up on the bank.

 

Again, I am asking if anyone has or knows where I can access written rules that govern what happens on man made water reservoirs in Thailand.

[Monomial]

The way you describe this, this is a large lake they dug on a housing estate, usually done so they can use the dirt elsewhere during construction. In this case, the entire lake will be owned with a chanote, and it will be no different from any other common area in the housing estate. The kinds of activities they will and will not allow in any common area will be entirely determined by the housing authority for your estate.  You would need to consult the articles of association for your estate's housing authority if you wanted written regulations.

 

There should not be any "government lackey" in this situation, it would be a private lackey, so I am somewhat confused by your question. Perhaps if you can describe the legal structure of your estate, and what associations govern the common areas, we could be more help. It is important to address whether the entire lake is covered by a chanote, or whether the lake was dug and/or created on public land.  If it is a private lake, you likely will have no choice but to abide by whatever the housing association says.  If they don't want pontoon boats in the common area, then you either convince everyone in your village to petition them to change this policy, or you accept the rules as they are.

 

Not sure if this helps, but if you can be specific about what you are asking then you may get better responses. Please explain specifically what you mean when you say "relatively large lake that is a man made reservoir".

 

[Tagaa]

To answer your question "

1 hour ago, Monomial said:

Not sure if this helps

To answer you question, your post does not help at all. You could not be farther off the mark.

 

Nothing in my post would lead anyone to believe that it is a pond dug in a housing estate. I described it as a man made reservoir. Where I come from a man made reservoir means a lake formed by the construction of a large dam. I will make a few points to clarify the situation.

 

1) It is a government reservoir with

 

2) a government admin office (remember I said we had already talked with the government lackey)

 

3) on government land.

 

4) It is 100% controlled by the government (again remember I said "I FINALLY convinced my Thai speaking half into going to the lake management office").

 

5) It is a man made dam/reservoir. The dam is approx a kilometer long. My guess is the dam is 40 meters or so high.

 

6) The back line of my property is the government property line.

 

If this were in my country, the government agency charged with over seeing this lake would issue permits for docks, to property owners along the perimeter and there would be private boats using it for recreation. There would be written regulations that defined every aspect of it's administration & use, along with prohibited uses, public use access areas, allowed dock areas & prohibited dock areas, so as to preserve some of the natural beauty.

 

It is this document, in general, that defines uses for government built & controlled lakes across Thailand that I seek.

 

I realize my first mistake was not including a picture. Collectively, these photos encompass about 20% of the lake area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Monomial]

OK,

 

In this case you are going to need to find out who the Master of Harbour is for the specific lake in question. If it the "government lackey" you refer to, then you are basically without recourse, because it is his job to protect the water, and it is in his discretion on how to do this. If he feels your boat causes an issue for the water and you disagree and you can not come to terms, all you can do is appeal to the Minister of the Interior and plead your case.

 

Certainly, any water cooled engine is almost certainly going to be a big no, because it has the possibility of leaking oil into the water, which is specifically forbidden in the navigation act and is punishable by up to 20,000 baht and a year in jail.  While engines like this may be allowed on a river, it will likely not be allowed on a lake.

 

I have never seen any kind of a written document which spells out specifically what is allowed across the entire country. You need to find the Master of Harbour for your lake and convince him your boat will not be an issue. Ultimately, he is the one who approves or disapproves. If you say there are other boats similar to yours already operating on the lake without issue, then perhaps the owners of these boats have made "arrangements". In theory, if you keep your cool and make friends and buy some pastries, you could be allowed to do the same thing.

 

 

 

 

[Tagaa]

On 2/22/2018 at 2:23 AM, Monomial said:

Certainly, any water cooled engine is almost certainly going to be a big no, because it has the possibility of leaking oil into the water,

I guess you have never heard of 4 stroke outboard motors.

 

Once again, I'm looking for governing documents. As there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of this type of water reservoirs in Thailand, there must be written regulations. Again, this is what I seek, not opinions.