7 Billion Baht Budget Set For More Effective Drainage System

[Jai Dee]

Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives set budget at 7 billion baht for drainage system

The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has set a budget of seven billion baht for building a more effective water drainage system as well as promoting Sufficiency Economy to Thai farmers.

Mr. Rungruang Issarankura Na Ayutthaya, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, said the Sufficiency Economy will be the main issue in the 2007 Agriculture Development Plan. It will include the opportunity analysis for each agricultural category before moving forward to the technological know-how. The estimated budget to pursue this plan is around seven billion baht.

The budget will be used for constructing more check dams and creating plenty of monkey cheeks. The emphasis of competent warning system is also another objective.

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives added that fresh fruits and vegetables, orchids, seafood, pork, and beef have high exporting potentials. Thailand has exported a high volume of poultry, and the poultry exporters should focus on half-cooked poultry for the time being.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 19 December 2006

[kurgen]

7,000,000,000 baht

plenty of room for a few back handers and earners there then

[jm49er1]

The budget will be used for constructing more check dams and creating plenty of monkey cheeks.

What is a "Monkey Cheek"?

[jm49er1]

never mind - found the answer myself:

"Kaem-Ling" is a well known word for most of Thai people of which the meaning is "Monkey Cheek". His Majesty kindly explained the so-called "Monkey Cheek" project for flood prevention by comparing it to a monkey's eating habit. When we give bananas to a monkey, it will peel and put them into its mouth and store them by the jowls next to its cheeks.Then, the monkey will gradually chew and swallow them later. So did the "Kaem Ling" concept to help alleviate flooding in Bangkok by temporarily store excessive water during heavy rain and gradually drain afterwards to accomodate the capacity of the available drainage facilities.

BMA again carried out the Monkey Cheeks projects in some areas on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River especially at Klong Mahachai,Klong Sanamchai in Bangkhunthien District. The implementation of these projects had reflected a huge benefit to people who live in the western part of the city.

[stoneman]

It seems that every year, at the end of the rainy season when all the floods have subsided, we hear about all the money and projects to prevent this from happening next year. But within 30 days after the announcement, all the urgency is gone and it becomes a non-issue until the rains come next year and we will hear the same thing again..

[mouse]

It seems that every year, at the end of the rainy season when all the floods have subsided, we hear about all the money and projects to prevent this from happening next year. But within 30 days after the announcement, all the urgency is gone and it becomes a non-issue until the rains come next year and we will hear the same thing again..

And now you have learned why they call this LOS. It is wasted energy to do otherwise.

[Tony Clifton]

As long as there is no control over backfilling of land plots they'll never catch up, monkey cheeks or not, the runoff keeps increasing as more and more land is sold and built on. A fine example, the Amata Nakorn industrial park, gets flooded on a regular basis. I recently visited the owner of a huge section of fish ponds near it, land was bought a few weeks ago to build more factories, filled and raised by about 3 meters. Where's that rain water going to end up? The ground is already saturated with water from the nearby river and Gulf.

Dog chasing it's tail.

[chownah]

my take on this "news" is that this is the budget for flood control AND improvements to the irrigation canal networks.....our klong in rural Thailand has been due for a relining and extension for about 4 years and is put off yearly due to lack of funding. The Thai irrigation system is considered as very inefficient by world standards and improving it would make a definite postitive impact on rural small time farmers. Perhaps the reason why this "news" focuses on flood control is that the rich people in Bangkok don't really care much about the plight of the small rural farmer but they do care about keeping their slave wage factories above water.("slave wage factories"...intentional effort to stir up conroversy!!)

Chownah