Parks dept gives a firm 'no' to Mae Wong dam

Says project not worth loss of pristine forest

The National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department is refusing to budge from its opposition to the planned Mae Wong dam in Nakhon Sawan province.

The department says the dam, a project of the Irrigation Department, is not the answer to flooding and drought problems and is not worth the sacrifice of more than 11 thousand rai of the pristine Mae Wong national park.

Continued at the Bangkok Post

www.bangkokpost.com/News/09Oct2007_news14.php

Good to hear that they are thinking of the countryside by keeping the forest intact.

I suppose it is nice to hear that they want to keep the forest intact however I live on the edge of the Mae Wong national park and this year the government water supply stopped in January and was nor restored until May.

While some of up here could pump water from the klong while it was still running a lot of villagers were unable to do so.

We had to pump the water from the klong across one persons land, under the road, across the front of a neighbours land, through a pipe we buried under his drive and across our land. A total of 350 metres.

We cannot drill for water as we are on rock just over a metre down though my wife tells me that this year there is a borehole dug near the temple which will supply water year round to the moo ban, however I will believe it when I see it.

I normally pay around 3 baht for a cubic metere of water, if I use my petrol engined pump it comes in around 25 baht and if I buy it from the tanker afround the village it works out at about 50 baht a cubic metre.

Ouch at those prices and also at the lack of water

Shows there is an up side and a down side to everything. Maybe they could come to some compromise but, as ever, that would be a long time coming.