Just on four years ago in December 2009 a.d. a ceremony on the bank of the Mae Kha Canal, by the bridge in Rattanakosin Rd just down from the Municipal Stadium, marked the initiation of a program to make the canal an asset the people of Chiang Mai might enjoy.
The water was to be made clean, paths for walking cycling were to follow its path and trees were to be planted. Town and provincial officials joined with school children in the festivities amidst 60 gayly coloured flowers planted for the occasion as the Deputy Mayor and Deputy Governor “planted” one tree each to mark the occasion.
Now four years later during which time the municipality has twice destroyed the streamside trees with its dredging operations, at Chang Klang, south of Sridonchai Rd, here is the scene- Trees gone and Water Black and malodorous. Never-the-less the Mayor of the period is standing for re-election.
From A.Non ( presumablement un gentilhomme de France )
Hi Ricky
And well before that, similar razamatazz took place on Loi Kroh on “the stinking klong” on the west side of the Duangtawan hotel and the east side of what is now Gecko Garden (that used to be a motorcycle repair shop).
Identical result!
What has always irked me over and above the civic vandalism is utter failure to identify the SOURCE of the black sludge and prevent it!
I am told that north of the superhighway the stream is so clean you could swim in it. I am told that somewhere just on the city side of that big road is a factory of some sort which is the culprit. I can only assume that it is owned by someone Very Important Indeed!
In 1972 my wife and her elder sister were boating on the Klong Mae Kha. The boat capsized and they both came close to drowning. These days they would be gassed by the smell as they got into the (stationary) boat.
Can you make time to investigate the root cause of the problem? Then get out of Dodge!
A. Non
Cher M. Non,
In 1996 Abu Saleh Mohammand Firoz, for his M.Sc. @ CMU Did a “Water Quality Assessment of Huay Kaew Stream, Mae Kha Canal and Mae Ping River”. With 7 sampling intervals at 3 sites on each water body,, from north of the Super Hwy beside Lanna Hospital to Mae Ping confluence in the case of the Mae Kha. All pollution indicators – E.coli, B.O.D, acidity, N, etc were consistently “very serious” in the Mae Kha, “moderate” in Mae Ping, and Huay Keow “not quite safe for human use”.